[blindlaw] Informational Picketing Against Authors GuildinNewYork City

Sun Mar 29 05:38:40 UTC 2009

The authors Guild or any other such guild is not exempt from complying with 
the ADA and other legislation to make their products or services accessible 
to people with disabilities.
Chuck
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "E.J. Zufelt" <everett at zufelt.ca>
To: "NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List" <blindlaw at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:25 AM
Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Informational Picketing Against Authors 
GuildinNewYork City

Good morning,

Interesting, I think that the word that persuades me here is
performance.  The argument then, as I understand it, is that the
reading aloud, by a person or machine, of a work differs from an audio
book that is commercially produced that would be considered a
performance of the work.  I think that I can accept that to be a
reasonable distinction between the two.  So, even if the ability to
have a work read aloud impacts negatively on an authors return on
investment, which it may not, it is as a result of evolving technology
and is something that the authoring industry will need to deal with in
the same manner as other industries must deal with the potential
negative economic impact of evolving technology.

Thanks for your thorough explanation,
Everett

On 28-Mar-09, at 8:16 AM, Chris Danielsen wrote:

> Hi Everett,
>
> First, let me say that not only are Federation members supportive of  this
> action, but we have in fact reached out to other disability  organizations
> representing individuals with spinal cord injuries, dyslexia and other
> learning disabilities, and other print disabilities and they are all  in
> agreement with this position. Second, the issue here is not whether 
> authors
> have the right to control their intellectual property, which they most
> certainly do. The issue is whether they can parse up the uses of an 
> e-book
> that an individual has already paid for and claim that each  potential use 
> of
> it is an intellectual property right.
>
> The Authors Guild is upset because Amazon added a text-to-speech  function 
> to
> its Kindle 2, which means that downloaded e-books can be read aloud.
> Initially, Amazon did not plan to include the ability to disable that
> function; the company only backed down when the Authors Guild raised a
> stink. But the fact is that Amazon was initially legally correct to 
> believe
> that there was no inherent intellectual property right involved. The 
> reading
> aloud of text that one has purchased, in private, is not a copyright
> violation but a fair use. To argue otherwise is to argue that  parents who
> read bedtime stories to their kids, or for that matter blind people  who 
> have
> a print textbook read aloud to them by a reader (human or machine),  are
> violating copyright law. This is ridiculous and every copyright  lawyer 
> worth
> his or her salt knows it; even the Authors Guild is now backing down  from
> it, arguing instead that the terms of their contracts prohibit this  use. 
> It
> makes absolutely no difference whether the reading aloud is done by  a 
> human
> or a machine, as long as there is no "public performance" or  derivative 
> work
> created.
>
> The Authors Guild wants what you have suggested--a registration  system 
> for
> people with disabilities, who would then be allowed to unlock the
> text-to-speech function. But more than just blind people are  affected 
> here,
> and many of them have disabilities that are not tied to a specific 
> organic
> cause and can't be medically diagnosed. Besides, who would  administer 
> this
> system? Amazon? The Authors Guild? And more to the point, why should
> disabled readers have to register to read a book that we have paid  good
> money for? The Guild's position is tantamount to saying, "You can  buy our
> e-books but you can't read them without clearance from us." It is
> unacceptable and discriminatory.
>
> Bottom line; Everyone who pays good money for an e-book--which is not
> inherently either a visual or audio work and could conceivably be 
> converted
> into even more formats, including Braille--should be able to read it  in
> whatever form works best for them. The authors have a chance here to  get
> money from the disability community--a revenue stream they've never  had
> before since right now we get a lot of our reading material from  free or
> subscription services like NLS or Bookshare. But our money  apparently 
> isn't
> good enough for them. Sure, they're motivated not by keeping us out  but 
> by
> trying to keep out the sighted, in order to make sure that the sighted
> either pay a surcharge for text-to-speech or buy the much more  expensive
> audio book version. But that's just greed, not an intellectual  property
> dispute. And disabled people who have legitimate reading problems  but 
> can't
> "prove" them to the satisfaction of the Authors Guild will also have  to 
> pay
> that surcharge. This is wrong on many levels and it's lousy business  too. 
> I
> hope that in light of all this you will consider supporting our  action.
>
> Library services for the blind and others have their place, but the 
> advent
> of the e-book means that we no longer have to be locked into those 
> systems
> and potentially will have access to a much broader array of literary
> content. This has been the dream of the blind and others with print
> disabilities for generations. We are not going to let a knee-jerk,  poorly
> thought out reaction from some authors organization take that dream  away.
>
> Chris
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: blindlaw-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:blindlaw- bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of E.J. Zufelt
> Sent: Saturday, March 28, 2009 5:01 AM
> To: NFBnet Blind Law Mailing List
> Subject: Re: [blindlaw] Informational Picketing Against Authors Guild
> inNewYork City
>
> Good morning,
>
> My concern with this action is whether or not the opinion expressed is
> representative of NFB membership.  I for one believe that Amazon is
> well within their reasonable right to block this functionality from
> titles on their site to perserve the authors rights to their
> intellectual property.
>
> Perhaps a better approach would be for Amazon to be required to make
> an unlocked version of the texts available to individuals who register
> as text impaired.  Understandably this method would have several
> problems that would have to be negotiated between all concerned  parties.
>
> Just my two cents,
> Everett
>
>
> On 28-Mar-09, at 4:36 AM, <ckrugman at sbcglobal.net> wrote:
>
>> If the legislative alert system previously discussed on this list
>> hade been implemented members from all over the country could
>> respond with emails or faxes to the Authors Guild to address this
>> issue. This would be much more effective then to expect Federations
>> spending hundreds of dollars on plain fare and hotel accommodations
>> for this cause. While the information definitely needs to be
>> provided there are much more effective ways for this to be done.
>> Charles L. Krugman, M.S.W., ParalegalPresident,
>> NFB of California Central Valley Chapter
>> 1237 P Street
>> Fresno ca 93721
>> 559-266-9237
>> ----- Original Message ----- From: "David Andrews"  <dandrews at visi.com>
>> To: <david.andrews at nfbnet.org>
>> Sent: Friday, March 27, 2009 1:40 PM
>> Subject: [blindlaw] Informational Picketing Against Authors Guild in
>> NewYork City
>>
>>
>>
>>> From Chris Danielson:
>>
>> Dear Fellow Federationists:
>>
>> As you may already know, Amazon, Inc. released the newest version of
>> its
>>
>> e-book reader, the Kindle, on February 9 of this year.  The Kindle 2
>>
>> includes a feature that allows e-books downloaded to it to be read
>> aloud.
>>
>> The Authors Guild has objected to this feature because it believes
>> these
>>
>> e-books are licensed only for visual display, and under pressure
>> from the
>>
>> Guild, Amazon has decided to allow authors and publishers to decide
>> which
>>
>> books can be read aloud by this device.  Naturally, this is a blow
>> to blind
>>
>> people and others with print disabilities who can benefit from the
>>
>> text-to-speech feature and who would love to be able to purchase
>> books and
>>
>> start reading them immediately for the first time in history.  For
>> this
>>
>> reason the National Federation of the Blind has joined with other
>>
>> organizations representing people who cannot use print effectively
>> to fight
>>
>> the Authors Guild.
>>
>> We plan to kick off our public education campaign to increase public
>>
>> pressure on the Authors Guild to reverse its stance with an
>> informational
>>
>> protest in front of the Guild's headquarters in New York City.  This
>> picket
>>
>> will take place on Tuesday, April 7, from noon until 2:00 p.m.  I am
>> writing
>>
>> to you in hopes that you can organize members to come to this
>> protest.  A
>>
>> number of Federationists from Maryland are coming and we expect
>>
>> participation from other organizations in the coalition, but it
>> would be
>>
>> very helpful if those of you with easy access to New York City would
>> help us
>>
>> by providing more picketers.  It is extremely important that we  make a
>>
>> strong impression on the Authors Guild and the media so that our
>> message
>>
>> will be heard.
>>
>> In the next few days you will receive more communications with
>> additional
>>
>> logistical details, as well as more information about our position  and
>>
>> suggestions on how to respond to questions from the media.  In the
>> meantime,
>>
>> if you have additional questions, please do not hesitate to contact
>> me.  As
>>
>> soon as you have an idea of how many people may be able to come to
>> this
>>
>> event, please provide that information to John Paré by calling
>> 410-659-9314,
>>
>> ext. 2227, or by e-mailing jpare at nfb.org.  Thank you for your
>> assistance in
>>
>> this important matter.
>>
>> Sincerely:
>>
>> Chris Danielsen
>>
>> Christopher S. Danielsen
>>
>> Director of Public Relations
>>
>> NATIONAL FEDERATION OF THE BLIND
>>
>>
>> David Andrews and white cane Harry.
>>
>>
>>
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