[Web4lib] Kindle vs. Accessibility

[Tim Spalding]

When authors sell rights to a book, they sell specific rights. The
audiobook, paperback, hardback and ebook rights are all sold sepately.
The fallacy in your example—reading books to children in libraries—is
that, if you booked a hall and sold tickets to read a book out loud,
it wouldn't be covered—performance rights are something else.

The question is, what is text-to-speech? Absent a contract that
defines what it is, is it an ebook right, an audio book right or a
right all its own? Nobody knows. (One result is that audiobook
companies are leery of signing contracts with authors who've sold TTS
rights, because that will eventually diminish the value of the
audiobook.)

Is it one thing now but, as technology improves, it becomes something
else? You may think TTS is bad, but it's getting a lot better. I use
it a lot already, to read blogs, mostly.

What about translations? What if the Kindle translated books for you?
Sure, they wouldn't be great, but they're getting better, and
translation rights are clearly and firmly within book contracts. If an
author signs a contract saying you can publish the book in English,
and then signs a second agreement with a German publisher, can the
English publisher offer a machine-translated version? Surely not.

For interest, here's a good legal overview of the problem:
http://www.engadget.com/2009/02/11/know-your-rights-does-the-kindle-2s-text-to-speech-infringe-au/

Tim

On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 1:18 PM, Sharon Foster <fostersm1 at gmail.com> wrote:
> Kelly's right. A computer-generated voice and a dramatic reading by a
> pro are not equivalent. How would you like to listen to the voice at
> <fill in the name of any voice menu system> read the newspaper to you?
> I'd rather go to the dentist. I'm sure Amazon and the publishers and
> authors will figure out a way to allow blind and low-vision people to
> purchase the audio-enabled item for a few dollar$ more.
>
> Next they'll forbid children's librarians from holding story hours, or
> holding up the books so children can see the pictures.
>
> Sharon M. Foster, 99% Librarian (waiting for the official okey-dokey
> to change it to 100%)
> Speaker-to-Computers
> http://www.vsa-software.com/mlsportfolio/
>
>
>
>
>
>
> On Thu, May 14, 2009 at 12:31 PM,  <kellyaquinn at gmail.com> wrote:
>> There is a copyright exemption for Braille, and Braille and a screenreader serve the same exact purpose. How can publishers compare a computer-generated voice to a dramatic reading by an author or professional reader? This is just plain greed.
>> Sent via BlackBerry by AT&T
>>
>>
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