Amazon.com's Kindle 2 mobile electronic reader had a buzz-heavy Feb. 9 launch with Jeff Bezos and Stephen King. But now The Authors Guild says the Kindle 2's text-to-speech feature could violate authors' audio book copyrights.At Amazon.com's
Kindle 2 launch at the Morgan Library and Museum on Feb. 9, CEO
Jeff Bezos highlighted a new
feature for the Kindle electronic reader: text-to-speech. It's good news
for anyone who wants a document read to him or her in an electronic voice, but
according to The Authors Guild it also potentially violates copyright
law.
The Authors Guild said it believes the Kindle 2's ability to read out loud
could present a revenue-draining challenge to audio books, an idea the guild
evidently finds scarier than a new
novella by Stephen King.
The Kindle 2, slimmer than an iPhone with a width of 0.36 inches and
retailing for $359, features a grayscale screen and 25 percent more battery life
than its predecessor; it can also hold 1.4GB of user-accessible memory, making
it useful for storing enterprise documents.
The current bone of contention, however, is the ability to have a flat, male
or female electronic voice read aloud whatever's on the screen, effectively
making the document into an audio book even if it was sold as a text.
"Bundling e-books and audio books has been discussed for a long time in
the industry. It's a good idea, but it shouldn't be accomplished by fiat by an
e-book distributor," said a statement on The Authors Guild Web site.
"We're studying this matter closely and will report back to
you."
However, the statement made no mention of an imminent lawsuit on the part of
the guild, which advocates for writers' rights in the areas of copyright protection,
contracts and "free expression," according to its Web site.
Whether or not The Authors Guild does try to litigate, some legal experts say
they believe the underlying case is thin.
"Text-to-speech doesn't result in making more copies of the book or in
performing the copy on the Kindle to anyone else, the normal ways that
copyright would be triggered," James Grimmelmann, an associate professor
at New York Law
School's Institute for Information
Law and Policy, said in an interview.
"The Authors Guild's argument is that [text-to-speech] creates a
'derivative work' based on the book but different from it. The problem with
that argument is that courts have held that a derivative work isn't created
unless there's fresh originality added to itthe way that a movie version of a
novel has a screenplay, editing, music and so on," Grimmelmann said.
Mechanically turning words into computer-synthesized speech, in his opinion,
seems unlikely to add the necessary originality, he said.
Fresh from the Kindle 2 launch, Amazon.com has already
started marketing accessories for the device, including a selection of
protective leather and polyester covers and clip-on lights.
Mobile & Wireless 
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