New Kindle 2 feature stirs legal questions
When I wrote this post about the new and improved Kindle 2, I hardly gave much thought about its text-to-speech functionality, other than noting that the ADA (Americans with Disabilities Act) would probably applaud the feature.
However, I failed to see this from the point of view of the Authors Guild, who claims that the Kindle 2 is infringing on the copyright protection of audiobooks. Then I read this article from Yahoo!:
The challenge revolves around audiobooks, which are treated separately from printed material from a copyright standpoint. A retailer can’t record a copy of a book on a CD and sell it or bundle it along with a novel without paying a separate fee, just as buying a copy of an audiobook doesn’t entitle you to a free copy of the printed version.
Obviously, text-to-speech is nothing new. My computer has it and I can listen to just about any chunk of text – even my emails! One caveat: The computerized voice that accompanies most text-to-speech programs is adequate at best and downright nauseating if listened to for any length of time.
Audiobooks, on the other hand, are professionally produced with a reader who has a good voice and there’s usually a little dramatic inflection in the reading. Thus audiobooks provide a much different experience than text-to-speech.
The Authors Guild, who is raising the heat on Amazon to do something, has yet to take any of legal action. But they do give some advice to publishers and authors:
If you have a new book contract and are negotiating your e-book rights, make sure Amazon’s use of those rights is part of the dialog. Publishers certainly could contractually prohibit Amazon from adding audio functionality to its e-books without authorization, and Amazon could comply by adding a software tag that would prohibit its machine from creating an audio version of a book unless Amazon has acquired the appropriate rights. Until this issue is worked out, Amazon may be undermining your audio market as it exploits your e-books.
Yes, Amazon is "exploiting" your ebook with this text-to-speech, according to the Authors Guild. Yet from my own personal experience, the people who buy audiobooks seem to be of an older generation that probably doesn’t embrace ebooks like some of us younger kids.
In other words, I think that ebooks and audiobooks appeal to two very different demographics, and any crossover between the two would be minimal.
What do you think about the Authors Guild complaint? Do they have a legitimate grievance with the Kindle 2, or is it all smoke and mirrors? Leave a comment below and let us know what you think!
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