[Blindtlk] Explaining why copyright law supports NFB not Authors Guild

[T. Joseph Carter]

A point of fact, the Kindle doesn't have OCR technology.  It's just 
got a digital copy of the text.  If you feed it image-only files, it 
can't figure out what the text in them says.

Joseph

On Wed, Apr 08, 2009 at 10:33:10AM -0400, Rovig, Lorraine wrote:
>I've been thinking about how best to explain to folks that blind persons
>and others have a right to read through OCR software on the Kindle 2
>without sounding like I'm saying blind persons deserve free stuff just
>because they are blind and, no, we are not taking bread out the mouths
>of authors. As I understand it, the law supports NFB's position. Here's
>what I say... 
>
>Blind persons, dyslexic persons, and others who cannot read print,
>currently need and use OCR software to read print they have downloaded
>to their computers.  The Kindle 2 is a computer with already built-in
>OCR software. Non-print readers hunger for the mega-library from which
>one can buy books through Amazon.com (via the Kindle 2 and its one-click
>online shopping feature).  As the protest in New York showed, blind
>readers and others who use OCR software will buy books and a Kindle
>(once it is updated to permit blind access to the controls, which Amazon
>says it will do).  There is no downside to the authors' wallets.
>Actually, they would sell many more books. Arguments from the Authors
>Guild about OCR-read books not being covered "in the contract" which
>authors have with publishers does not hold because the copyright law
>permits "private performance" of print materials.  Once you have bought
>a book, you may read the print yourself or have another read it to you.
>Today this other person may actually be OCR software.  Recorded books
>are a "different" version of a book and are covered by contract.  OCR
>software is the same book through mechanical means. It appears the
>Authors Guild has gotten incorrect advice from its lawyers on how to
>help the best-selling authors, the top 10 percent of whose books get put
>into recorded formats.  The other 90 percent of authors who are lucky to
>have their book sell in print will miss sales they could get if Kindle
>2's OCR was encouraged.   Say...What is that word for the unimaginative
>people who thought smashing newly invented machines would prevent the
>Industrial Revolution?
>
>Cordially,
>
>Lorraine Rovig
>
>
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