Amazon Kindle Bows to Idiotic Author’s Guild on Text-to-Speech

Sure, the Kindle 2 eBook reader from Amazon is over-priced and the eBooks themselves are over-priced but its a device who’s time has come and one that will be with us in some form or another well into the future – or at least until our eyeballs become part of a hard-wired internal computing service…

Much like you can do on your own Mac or PC pretty simply, the Kindle 2 offered the option of having a rather digitized and un-emotive voice “read” to you.  This caused a flare-up from some authors who felt this was stepping on their ancillary audiobook rights.  It sounded so absurd that I never imagined Amazon would actually back down.  I was wrong:

The only significant change to the experimental section in the Kindle 2 was the addition of a text-to-speech capability that allowed the Kindle to read content to its users in one of two synthesized voices. Following an extended outcry from some in the publishing business, however, Amazon has backed down and will allow publishers to retain control over whether to expose their texts to this capability.

While there is nothing especially wrong with letting publishers opt out of this feature, none of their logic makes much sense.  First, these synthisized voices are far from what one gets with a true audiobook read by a trained professional.  it’s the difference between hearing a symphony recording of Ode to Joy or listening to a synthisized ringtone version.

They would argue that the voices might not be “real” yet but they could be someday.  They’re right but it still doesn’t justify their complaints.  The truth is that the authors will never stop this process and they are better off understanding that the abilty to listen to a book I bought presumably to read is an added value that can increase sales overall.

I wish Amazon had stood up to the author’s guild but it’s just a matter of time before technology settles the matter for all parties.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Amazon mutes Kindle text-to-speech feature (dailyfinance.com)
• No reading out loud (jimdempsey.wordpress.com)
• Amazon Changes Kindle 2 Text-To-Speech Policy (mediabistro.com)
• Amazon Backs off Text-to-Speech Feature in Kindle (Brad Stone/Bits) (techmeme.com)
• Authors Guild successfully kills Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature, it’s now optional for publishers (crunchgear.com)

3 Comments

• 

  By Mark Essel, March 3, 2009 @ 9:20 am

  This type of feature change after the release of a product is frightening or at the very least damaging to Amazon’s market position for it’s Kindle Books.

  It amazes me that we are finding new ways to value information for it’s pertinence, quality, and timeliness on the internet but our vast riches of older written information must suffer in it’s availability due to old thinking.

  I suggest a simple solution, one media rule that rewards any media authors based on the popularity of their works as well as sociably redeeming qualities. The capitol can be generated via ads to free users, or by subscriptions to those that prefer to avoid ads.

• 

  By admin, March 3, 2009 @ 9:24 am

  Not sure it really hurts Amazon’s position. Kindle2 will likely sell out even though it is pricey. I think we are moving toward more of a meritocracy when it comes to monetizing creative work but big industry players fear losing their grip and profits.

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