What do you think of the National Federation of the Blind’s protest against the Author’s Guild?
The authors guild wants to take away the text-to-speech function on the Kindle 2 and make it so that the blind have to either pay extra to read books like everyone else or be forced through some registration process… But then why don’t parents have to go through a registration process before it’s legal for them to read books out loud to their children… What do you think?
http://i.gizmodo.com/5202554/photos-and-video-from-the-national-federation-of-the-blinds-kindle-2-protest
Wow, that is beyond obnoxious (the Author’s Guild, not the NF of the Blind’s protest of their actions).
So, based on their ‘logic’ (I use the term QUITE loosely) any technology that mechanically reads text should not be allowed? I’m sure there already is technology like that, just not as convenient as a built-in system to allow automatic access.
And yes, an automatic text-to-speech function will cut into audiobook sales for people who don’t care about sound quality…in exactly the same way as photocopying a book in the library cuts into the book sales for people who don’t care about visual quality. There is still a quality difference between the two that most people care about…I, for one, hate mechanical sounding voices. I’m more likely to shell out the dough for a good audiobook rather than accept a free low-quality version…as long as the price for the audiobook is reasonable. The members of the Author’s Guild should take a long look at what value they are offering for the prices they are charging and consider how they can best make use of the markets that are there.
It’s like the record companies. At the beginning of the transition to music files on computers, they had an opportunity to sell directly to customers, which they refused. Instead, they kicked and screamed and said that no one should ever dare use their songs in a way other than they intended. Well, progress doesn’t stop and people find a way to get what they want. Instead of trying to stand in their way, the Author’s Guild should be trying to reach out and serve these needs in an innovative way.
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