Author’s Guild is Smoking Crack
I have been following a story about the author’s guild trying to force the kindle to remove text to speech capabilities from the kindle E-reader. Saying that the audio license is different than the written license. The problem is that Amazon isn’t distributing an audio version of the book. It is distributing the book and the user’s are making an audio version once they receive it, in real time. This is like saying that a mother who reads to her children at night should have to pay for the audio version of Harry Potter in addition to the written copy of the book because she is distributing an audio version. I hope the courts tell the Guild where to stick it.
In fact I think Amazon should argue that all digital material should be required to distribute audio licenses with the material as a concession to vision impaired individuals who would otherwise not be able to read books. Amazon would need to add some screen reader capacity to the kindle to really sell this but then the courts would be forced to side with the blind or the rich. Tough choice there!!
- See the original story in Tech Crunch.
