[nfb-talk] The Kindle Swindle

Sun Mar 1 16:24:02 UTC 2009

The writers guild is having a problem getting into the 21st century. Their 
argument, which at first glance makes sense, is that talking books are an 
important revenue source for writers and will become even more important in 
the future. It's not fair for that source of revenue to be denied them. But 
we're not talking about giving away talking books for free. You still have 
to buy the book. The only way authors are actually losing revenue would be 
in the fairly rare cases where someone might buy both the print and the 
talking books.

The members of the writers guild need to wrap their minds around the fact 
that in the 21st century, people are going to look upon buying a book like 
they do buying any other license. When you buy a license, you expect to be 
able to make copies in whatever media you need and to use the product in 
whatever way works for you. You can't give somebody else a copy but you can 
copy the licensed product unto any other media for your own use.

The writers guild still thinks they're selling books, not licenses.

----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Brian Miller" <brian-r-miller at uiowa.edu>
To: <mabullis at hotmail.com>; "'NFB Talk Mailing List'" <nfb-talk at nfbnet.org>
Sent: Saturday, February 28, 2009 6:11 PM
Subject: Re: [nfb-talk] The Kindle Swindle

> How in the world can the Writer's Guilde make the case that a syntehsized
> speech program constitutes a performance that would in essence require a
> mechanical reproduction lisence to play?
>
> This is really taking royalty protection to an absurd level.  One should 
> pay
> for the access to the content, not the format of that content.  Is this
> really any different than someone taking a written copy and reading it
> aloud?
>
> Brian M
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org [mailto:nfb-talk-bounces at nfbnet.org] On
> Behalf Of Michael Bullis
> Sent: Wednesday, February 25, 2009 6:18 AM
> To: 'NFB Talk Mailing List'
> Subject: [nfb-talk] The Kindle Swindle
>
> This from today's New York Times.
> Mike Bullis
>
> OP-ED CONTRIBUTOR. The Kindle Swindle?.
>
> By ROY BLOUNT Jr.. Roy Blount Jr. is the author, most recently, of 
> 'Alphabet
> Juice. BEING president of too many well-meaning organizations put my 
> father
> into an early grave. The lesson in this was not lost on me. But now I am
> president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing 
> as
> a viable occupation. This borders on quixotic, given all the new ways of 
> not
> getting paid that new technology affords authors. A case in point: 
> Amazon's
> Kindle 2, which was released yesterday.
>
> The Kindle 2 is a portable, wireless, paperback-size device onto which
> people can download a virtual library of digitalized titles. Amazon sells
> these downloads, and where the books are under copyright, it pays 
> royalties
> to the authors and publishers.
>
> Serves readers, pays writers: so far, so good. But there's another thing
> about Kindle 2 -- its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 
> can
> read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.
>
> True, you can already get software that will read aloud whatever is on 
> your
> computer. But Kindle 2 is being sold specifically as a new, improved,
> multimedia version of books -- every title is an e-book and an audio book
> rolled into one. And whereas e-books have yet to win mainstream 
> enthusiasm,
> audio books are a billion-dollar market, and growing. Audio rights are not
> generally packaged with e-book rights. They are more valuable than e-book
> rights.
> Income
> from audio books helps not inconsiderably to keep authors, and publishers,
> afloat.
>
> You may be thinking that no automated read-aloud function can compete with
> the dulcet resonance of Jim Dale reading 'Harry Potter' or of authors, 
> ahem,
> reading themselves. But the voices of Kindle 2 are quite listenable. 
> There's
> even a male version and a female version. (A book by, say, Norman Mailer 
> on
> Kindle 2 might do a brisk business among people wondering how his prose
> would sound in measured feminine tones.)
>
> And that sort of technology is improving all the time. I.B.M. has patented 
> a
> computerized voice that is said to be almost indistinguishable from human
> ones.
> This voice is programmed to include 'ums,' 'ers' and sighs, to cough for
> attention, even to 'shhh' when interrupted. According to Andy Aaron, of
> I.B.M.'s Thomas J. Watson research group speech team: 'These sounds can be
> incredibly subtle, even unnoticeable, but have a profound psychological
> effect. It can be extremely reassuring to have a more attentive-sounding
> voice.
>
> When I read that quotation, it hit me: Hey, I know Andy Aaron. Years ago, 
> he
> said he was working on some sort of voice simulation, and asked to work my
> Southern accent into the mix. I don't remember whether we got around to 
> that
> or not, and this new I.B.M. software is designed, at any rate, not for 
> audio
> books but for computer help lines. So no part of my voice is competing 
> with
> my own audio books yet. But people who want to keep on doing creative 
> things
> for a living must be duly vigilant about any new means of transmitting 
> their
> work.
>
> What the guild is asserting is that authors have a right to a fair share 
> of
> the value that audio adds to Kindle 2's version of books. For this, the
> guild is being assailed. On the National Federation of the Blind's Web 
> site,
> the guild is accused of arguing that it is illegal for blind people to use
> 'readers, either human or machine, to access books that are not available 
> in
> alternative formats like Braille or audio.
>
> In fact, publishers, authors and American copyright laws have long 
> provided
> for free audio availability to the blind and the guild is all for
> technologies that expand that availability. (The federation, though, 
> points
> out that blind readers can't independently use the Kindle 2's visual,
> on-screen
> controls.)
> But that doesn't mean Amazon should be able, without copyright-holders'
> participation, to pass that service on to everyone.
>
> The guild is also accused of wanting to profiteer off family bedtime
> rituals. A lawyer at the Electronic Frontier Foundation sarcastically 
> warned
> that 'parents everywhere should be on the lookout for legal papers haling
> them into court for reading to their kids.
>
> For the record: no, the Authors Guild does not expect royalties from 
> anybody
> doing non-commercial performances of 'Goodnight Moon. If parents want to
> send their children off to bed with the voice of Kindle 2, however, it's
> another matter.
>
>
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