[stylist] stylist Digest, Vol 60, Issue 22

[Kerry Thompson]

Hi friends,

Though I am not an author whose work is affected by amazon.com's Kindle, it seems to me that the text to speech issue is one to be raised with amazon.com, which has little if anything to do with authors. In fact, I understand that amazon.com puts books on Kindle without permission from authors/publishers and without appropriate compensation. While it is true that Kindle needs to be made accessible to screen readers and other text to speech devices, the more important question is that of fairness to authors. Kindle is not a wonderful new way to read as long as it cheats authors out of rights and royalties. It is my understanding that this is exactly what it does at present. As such, it is not something that should be embraced by the print disabled community or anyone else until the unfair practices associated with it are resolved.

Solidarity and Peace,
Kerry