[Njabs-talk] April 7 Picket in NYC

[EVELYN E. VALDEZ]

----- Forwarded Message ----- 
From: "Quintina M. Singleton" <qmsingleton at comcast.net> 
To: Undisclosed- Recipient:; 
Sent: Monday, March 23, 2009 7:02:25 PM GMT - 05:00 US/Canada Eastern 
Subject: April 7 Picket in NYC 




For Your Information! 

Regards, 

Quintina Singleton 



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 

1800 Johnson Street 

Baltimore, Maryland 21230 

Phone: 410-659-9314, ext. 2330 

Fax: 410-685-5653 

Cell phone: 410-262-1281 

Email: 

cdanielsen at nfb.org 

www.nfb.org