Coalition Protests Kindle 2 Text-to-Speech Being Disabled
(Amazon Kindle 2 News Article - by Joe Tracy, copyright 2009) The Author’s Guild won a major victory when it got Amazon.com to agree to disable the text-to-speech feature on Kindle 2 books whose authors don’t want the feature enabled. But now both the Author’s Guild and Amazon.com are hearing from the Reading Rights Coalition, which wants the feature enabled on all Kindle books for blind and disabled readers that highly benefit from the text-to-speech feature.
“The blind and print-disabled have for years utilized text-to-speech technology to read and access information,” says Dr. Marc Maurer, President of the National Federation of the Blind. “As technology advances and more books move from hard-copy print to electronic formats, people with print disabilities have for the first time in history the opportunity to enjoy access to books on an equal basis with those who can read print. Authors and publishers who elect to disable text-to-speech for their e-books on the Kindle 2 prevent people who are blind or have other print disabilities from reading these e-books. This is blatant discrimination and we will not tolerate it.”
The Reading Rights Coalition represents people who can’t read print and will be holding a protest on April 7, over the threatened removal of the Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature, The protest will take place at the Authors Guild headquarters in New York City at 31 East 32nd Street from noon to 2:00 p.m.. Amazon.com was praised when it first introduced the Kindle 2 in early February with a text-to-speech feature for all books sold on the Kindle 2. But then Amazon.com caved to the demands of the Author’s Guild that it remove the text-to-speech feature from books whose authors don’t want the feature enabled. The Authors Guild compared the feature to “audio books”, which is a big market for many authors.
Meanwhile, the Reading Rights Coalition is calling the upcoming dismantling of the Kindle 2 text-to-speech feature an act of discrimination against the blind, people with dyslexia, seniors losing their vision, and people with spinal cord injuries.
“Removing the text-to-speech features closes the door on an innovative technological solution that would make regular print books available to tens of thousands of individuals who are blind or visually impaired,” says Mitch Pomerantz, president of the American Council of the Blind
Amazon.com has been facing many battles over its Kindle 2 since releasing in in February 2009. Earlier this month they had a lawsuit filed against them by Discovery Communications, claiming Amazon.com is infringing on their ereader patent. Amazon.com hasn’t given any indication that it will reverse its agreement with the Authors Guild and as a result, both Amazon.com and the Authors Guild are targets of the Reading Rights Coalition.
“Knowing full well that not everyone can see, the Authors Guild wants the right to be seen, but not heard,” says James Love, director of Knowledge Ecology International. “By bullying Amazon to change the technology of Kindle 2, the Authors Guild will either deny access to people who are disabled, or make them pay more. By attacking disabled persons in this way, the Authors Guild is attacking everyone who would otherwise benefit from the contributions this community has the potential to offer.”
The Reading Rights Coalition includes: American Association of People with Disabilities, American Council of the Blind, American Foundation for the Blind, International Dyslexia Association, Association on Higher Education and Disability, Learning Disabilities Association of America, Bazelon Center for Mental Health Law, National Disability Rights Network, Burton Blatt Institute, Digital Accessible Information System (DAISY) Consortium, Disability Rights Education and Defense Fund (DREDF), IDEAL Group, Inc., International Center for Disability Resources on the Internet, International Dyslexia Association–New York Branch, Knowledge Ecology International, National Center for Learning Disabilities, National Federation of the Blind, NISH, and the National Spinal Cord Injury Association.
Lawsuit Filed Against Amazon.com Over Kindle
(Amazon Kindle 2 Reviews blog) Discovery Communications has filed a lawsuit against Amazon.com, alleging that Amazon’s Kindle and Kindle 2 infringe on electronic delivery book system patent held by Discovery Communications.
“The Kindle and Kindle 2 are important and popular content delivery systems,” says Joseph A. LaSala, Jr., General Counsel of Discovery Communications. “We believe they infringe our intellectual property rights, and that we are entitled to fair compensation. Legal action is not something Discovery takes lightly. Our tradition as an inventive company has produced considerable intellectual property assets for our shareholders, and today’s infringement litigation is part of our effort to protect and defend those assets.”
The court papers filed by Discovery Communications, alleging patent infringement, are 102 pages long. According to the lawsuit, on November 20, 2007 Discovery Communications was granted a patent (no. 7,298,851) titled, “Electronic Book Security and Copyright Protection System”. The lawsuit states that Amazon has consistently and willfully infringed on the patent. The lawsuit wants a court to find that Amazon has infringed on the patent and award “damages adequate to compensate Discovery for Amazon’s infringement.” The lawsuit also wants Amazon barred from further infringement. Discovery Communications is seeking compensation, treble damages, pre-judgment interest, and all court costs.
If Amazon.com is found to have infringed willfully with the Kindle and Kindle 2, the costs to the company could be monumental. Amazon has yet to respond to the lawsuit which was made public on March 17, 2009.
Discovery Communications is the parent company of Animal Planet and the Discovery Channel.
Amazon.com Caves to Publishers Over Text to Speech on Kindle 2
(Amazon Kindle 2 Reviews blog) Just two weeks after releasing the Kindle 2, Amazon.com caved to demands from the publishing industry to limit the text to speech feature on the Kindle 2. Amazon.com has long maintained that the software, which reads text on the Kindle 2 is legal and doesn’t interfere withe audio book rights like some publishers maintained. For a few days Amazon.com battled a small group over the issue, but caved in early March 2009, releasing the following statement:
“Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal: no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given. Furthermore, we ourselves are a major participant in the professionally narrated audiobooks business through our subsidiaries Audible and Brilliance. We believe text-to-speech will introduce new customers to the convenience of listening to books and thereby grow the professionally narrated audiobooks business.Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.
Therefore, we are modifying our systems so that rightsholders can decide on a title by title basis whether they want text-to-speech enabled or disabled for any particular title. We have already begun to work on the technical changes required to give authors and publishers that choice. With this new level of control, publishers and authors will be able to decide for themselves whether it is in their commercial interests to leave text-to-speech enabled. We believe many will decide that it is.
Customers tell us that with Kindle, they read more, and buy more books. We are passionate about bringing the benefits of modern technology to long-form reading.”
The move by Amazon.com is a slap to consumers who will no longer be allowed to use the text to speech feature for anything they download to their Kindle 2. Now the feature will be disabled for downloads that publishers don’t want the feature enabled on. Amazon.com also loses one of its biggest features of the Kindle 2 and will have to put an astericks by any promotion saying the text to speech feature can read anything on the Kindle 2.