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Amazon gives in: Text-to-Speech now decided by book publisher

The text-to-speech feature of the in one of the main features that Amazon was touting when they debuted their latest e-book reader. However, Roy Blount, Jr., president of the Author’s Guild, made it immediately known that the Guild objects to the feature that he believes undermines the market for professional e-book. While this is overly cautious, since the Kindle sounds nothing like a real human being, Amazon has decided to step up (or back down?) and allow book publishers and authors the right to allow their works to be compatible with the text-to-speech feature or not. We are hoping that most will see that it’s harmless, and just allows folks to enjoy their work in a different way, albeit on the same device. You can read Amazon’s full statement after the jump.

You can pick up the Kindle 2 at Amazon, be sure to check out our Kindle 2 review.

Click to continue reading Amazon gives in: Text-to-Speech now decided by book publisher


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Authors Guild Concerned With Kindle 2 Read-to-Me

Posted by Sheila Franklin Categories: Misc. Tech

Kindle 2Amazon has run some opposition with its ‘s text-to-speech function. The Authors Guild claims that Read-to-Me may violate authors’ rights. Executive director Paul Aiken said, “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud. That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.”

The Guild is worried that audio book sales will be compromised by the feature, but we all know that hearing an electronic voice isn’t even close to that of the author or other human reader. We don’t think they really have to worry at this point, do you?

You can pick up a Kindle 2 at Amazon now.

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