[blindlaw] Kindle E-Reader: A Trojan Horse for Free Thought

Wed Apr 1 05:09:03 UTC 2009

this is why we need to be pushing for stronger regulations and enforcement 
regarding product accessibility. This should be no different then adopting 
product safety standards.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Chris Danielsen" <cdanielsen8 at aol.com>
To: "'NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List'" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:58 PM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Kindle E-Reader: A Trojan Horse for Free Thought


>I read another blog post from writer Corry Doctorow today indicating this
> same problem: we do not own what we think we own. Doctorow in effect asked
> his readers to put themselves in the position of the purchaser of a Kindle
> 2. When the purchaser bought the device, it was advertised as having the
> ability to read e-books aloud. But when Amazon makes the technical changes
> that allow authors and publishers to disable their books, the Kindle 2 
> will
> not work as advertised at least some of the time. Amazon will probably
> coerce the purchaser into accepting this change by requiring that he or 
> she
> download the firmware making this modification in order to be permitted to
> purchase more e-books. Nowadays the devices we purchase can turn on us,
> without warning and with no input from us, simply because the device
> manufacturer, under pressure from some faction or other, makes a firmware
> modification that causes an advertised feature to disappear or become
> severely restricted. Authors, Doctorow suggested, should be the last 
> people
> to make themselves party to such a reading device--a device that controls
> how the reader can use content at the whim of third parties.
>
> I'll forward the original post to this list if I can find it, since 
> Doctorow
> expressed the problem better than me and also made some very coherent
> arguments about why the Authors Guild is wrong about text-to-speech.
>
> Chris
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of craig.borne at dot.gov
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 2:10 PM
> To: blindlaw at nfbnet.org
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Kindle E-Reader: A Trojan Horse for Free Thought
>
> Hi Craig,
>
> One major difference I see is that a library book is never owned by the
> patron.  It is merely borrowed.
>
> On the other hand, the patron who purchases the electronic book on the
> Kindle is purchasing the same privileages as one who purchases a hard
> copy of the book, yet that purchase, though promising ownership of the
> book, is severely limited as to the portability of that book, which is
> not the case with a hard bound book.
>
> My impression of the article's focus was that we are indeed heading into
> a great technological age, but we also seem to be giving up certain
> privileages along the way.  ITunes is another great example: I can
> purchase an entire albumn of music, but I am limited in how I want to
> listen to that music.  I am also limited in allowing my neighbor to
> borrow the albumn to decide whether or not he is interested in
> purchasing it for himself (I am not suggesting any copying of the albumn
> in this example).
>
> Craig
>
> Craig Borne
> NHTSA/DOT
> (202) 493-0627
> craig.borne at dot.gov
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org]
> On Behalf Of Craig R. Anderson
> Sent: Tuesday, March 31, 2009 1:05 PM
> To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Kindle E-Reader: A Trojan Horse for Free Thought
>
> Dave,
>
>     Heady thoughts indeed.  But isn't Ms. Walsh a little too alarmist?
> How, after all, is a digitalized book on a Kindle Reader significantly
> different in this respect from a borrowed library book?  Thanks in any
> event for posting the essay.  Regards.
>
> Craig
> ----- David B Andrews <David.B.Andrews at state.mn.us> wrote:
>> With all the discussion about the Kindle, and what it permits, and
>> doesn't permit, I thought this might be of interest to some.
>>
>> David Andrews
>>
>>
>> Kindle E-Reader: A Trojan Horse for Free Thought
>>
>> By Emily Walshe
>> The Christian Science Monitor
>> from the March 18, 2009 edition
>>
> <<http://www.csmonitor.com/2009/0318/p09s01>http://www.csmonitor.com/200
> 9/0318/p09s01-coop.html>
>>
>> Brookville, N.Y. - All you really need to know about
>> the dangers of digital commodification you learned in
>> kindergarten.
>>
>> Think back. Remember swapping your baloney sandwich for
>> Jell-o pudding? Now, imagine handing over your sandwich
>> and getting just a spoon.
>>
>> That's one trade you'd never make again.
>>
>> Yet that's just what millions of Americans are doing
>> every day when they read "books" on Kindle, Amazon's e-
>> reading device. In our rush to adopt new technologies,
>> we have too readily surrendered ownership in favor of
>> its twisted sister, access.
>>
>> Web 2.0 and its culture of collaboration supposedly
>> unleashed a sharing society. But we can share only what
>> we own. And as more and more content gets digitized,
>> commercialized, and monopolized, our cultural integrity
>> is threatened. The free and balanced flow of
>> information that gives shape to democratic society is
>> jeopardized.
>>
>> For now, though, Kindle is on fire in the marketplace.
>> Who could resist reading "what you want, when you want
>> it?" Access to more than 240,000 books is just seconds
>> away. And its "revolutionary electronic-paper display
>> ... looks and reads like real paper."
>>
>> But it comes with restrictions: You can't resell or
>> share your books - because you don't own them. You can
>> download only from Amazon's store, making it difficult
>> to read anything that is not routed through Amazon
>> first. You're not buying a book; you're buying access
>> to a book. No, it's not like borrowing a book from a
>> library, because there is no public investment. It's
>> like taking an interest-only mortgage out on
>> intellectual property.
>>
>> If our flailing economy is to teach us anything, it
>> might be that an on-demand world of universal access
>> (with words like lease, licensure, and liquidity) gets
>> us into trouble. Amazon and other e-media aggregators
>> know that digital text is the irrational exuberance of
>> the day, and so are seizing the opportunity to codify,
>> commodify, and control access for tomorrow. But access
>> doesn't "look and read" like printed paper at all -
>> just ask any forlorn investor. Access is useless
>> currency.
>>
>> Why is this important? Because Kindle is the kind of
>> technology that challenges media freedom and restricts
>> media pluralism. It exacerbates what historian William
>> Leach calls "the landscape of the temporary": a hyper
>> mobile and rootless society that prefers access to
>> ownership. Such a society is vulnerable to the dangers
>> of selective censorship and control.
>>
>> Digital rights management (DRM), which Kindle uses to
>> lock in its library, raises critical questions about
>> the nature of property and identity in digital culture.
>> Culture plays a large role - in some ways, larger than
>> government - in shaping who we are as individuals in a
>> society. The First Amendment protects our right to
>> participate in the production of that culture. The
>> widespread commodification of access is shaping nearly
>> every aspect of modern citizenship. There are benefits,
>> to be sure, but this transformation also poses a big-
>> time threat to free expression and assembly.
>>
>> When Facebook, for example, proposed revisions to its
>> terms of service last month - claiming ownership of
>> user profiles and personal data - the successful
>> backlash it spawned caused complex (even existential)
>> ideas about property, identity, and capitulation to
>> bubble up: Is my Facebook profile the essence of who I
>> am? If so, who owns me?
>>
>> The hallmark of a constitutionally governed society,
>> after all, is the acknowledgment that we are the
>> authors of our own experience. In an Internet age, this
>> is manifest not only in published works, but also an
>> ever-evolving host of user-generated content (Twitter,
>> Blogger, Facebook, YouTube, etc.). If service providers
>> lay claim to digital content now, how will it all end?
>>
>> Print may be dying, but the idea of print would be the
>> more critical demise: the idea that there needs to be a
>> record - an artifact of permanence, residence, and
>> posterity - that is independent of some well-appointed
>> thingamajig in order to be seen, touched, understood,
>> or wholly possessed.
>>
>> "You don't have to burn books to destroy a culture,"
>> Ray Bradbury once said. "Just get people to stop
>> reading them."
>>
>> Access equals control. In this case, it is control over
>> what is read and what is not; what is referenced and
>> what is overlooked; what is retained and what is
>> deleted; what is and what seems to be.
>>
>> To kindle, we must remember, is to set fire to. The
>> combustible power of this device (and others like it)
>> lies in their quiet but constant claim to intangible,
>> algorithmic capital. What the Kindle should be igniting
>> is serious debate on the fundamental, inalienable right
>> to property in a digital age - and clarifying what's
>> yours, mine, and ours.
>>
>> It should strike a match against the winner-take-all
>> casino economies that this kind of technology
>> engenders; revitalize American libraries and other
>> social institutions in their quest to preserve the
>> doctrines of fair use and first sale (which allow for
>> free and lawful sharing); and finally, spark Americans
>> to consider the extent to which they are handing over
>> their baloney sandwich for a plastic spoon.
>>
>> Like a lot of people, I'm a sucker for a good book. But
>> not at the expense of freedom, or foreclosure of
>> thought.
>>
>>
>> Emily Walshe is a librarian and professor at Long
>> Island University in New York.
>>
>>
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