Kindle 2 has Text-to-Speech? Oh, the Horror!
Fear mongering is alive and kicking in publishing central, with this installment coming to you courtesy of The Author’s Guild. Heeding the call of Mr. Roy Blount, Jr., we should be brandishing our pitchforks to the Kindle 2’s adoption of text-to-speech, a feature that reads an eBook aloud using an artificially generated voice. The Author’s Guild is claiming derivative status on this feature and is having none of it, while Amazon.com says all they want to do is improve the value of copyrighted works to better suit the needs of its customers. Deary, deary me; this is a kerfuffle. Fortunately it has since been resolved between the two, but it’s doubtful the issue has been killed, more likely just tranqued. As we wait for the beast to make another play for world domination, how about we take a few minutes to figure out what it is we’re really fighting?
Following the primrose trail blazed by The Author’s Guild, we are enticed to believe that eBooks + text-to-speech = audiobooks (a derivative of an author’s work), which shafts authors on their share of the royalties. The logical question is then, “Okay, what’s a derivative?” In this case, text-to-speech is not infringing on copyright because it’s not creating a fixed medium that is published for profit. The Kindle 2’s text-to-speech function isn’t a permanent recording, but rather generates programmed sounds that float into the ether: this is a different format from that of an audiobook. Think of it as reading someone a story: once you’re done reading, the story is gone. It can be read again at any time, but it’s not the same as a recorded performance. Should you record the Kindle 2 reading the eBook and then sell that product, that’s another story altogether. (I know, my bad.)
Oh no. This is going to be another one of those things for the publishers to sort out, isn’t it?
Yes it is, my friends, but more about that later. For now, let’s switch back to that cheeky monkey “innovation” that embodies the Kindle 2.
Text-to-speech technology has been serving society for years, particularly those who are visually impaired. Anything that has the potential to improve a visually impaired person’s quality of life should be explored, shouldn’t it? Websites, ATM machines, the self-serve check-out line at Home Depot… all can be more democratic because the number of consumers who can benefit has increased with expanded technology. This is the beauty of innovation: taking something that already exists and improving on the idea for the betterment of more people. This is exactly what the Kindle 2 is doing: making books more available to the public in the way that serves them best. The problem isn’t that the technology is dreadful, it’s the fear that people who are using the technology will do dreadful things. When robots came on the scene in the auto industry and started replacing human labor, many thought that was appalling. But what if we move into the healthcare sector and the researchers looking to cure cancer: should they have to stop because their success will likely oust the people making a living in radiation and chemotherapy? Do we deny our innovators the right to create because we can’t be sure what will come of it? Is Big Brother our only option?
See? Fear moves both ways. Hopefully it’s clear now that technology is not the evil mistress in this debate, but rather an innocent victim of a dysfunctional marriage between authors and their publishers. As it stands, audio book rights and print book rights are considered separate entities, and yet after all this time, people still can’t agree on what this means. That is the problem. Purchasing a book in print gives you the right to enjoy it as you wish, which should include the opportunity to record yourself reading it aloud and then giving it to your aging father to enjoy in his nursing home. But then there’s always the possibility that dear, old dad will start charging admission for Tuesday afternoon “performances” in the rec room and selling bootleg copies of this “audiobook” to his cronies.
Come on people, you know what an audiobook is when you see it! Stop wasting your time grubbing for pennies when you should be out there promoting your work. Instead of tying up the courts and coming up with solutions on a book by book basis, why not cut through the red tape and standardize the process? Get the agents and publishers in a room and work it out ONCE for the benefit of the entire industry AND MOVE ON. We’re all busy people who should be picking our battles; text-to-speech shouldn’t be one of them.
