Amazon Kindle Controversy
The Authors Guild have claimed that the text-to-speech facility of the Amazon Kindle 2 is a violation of American Copyright Law. On 24 February 2009 Roy Blount Jr, as president of the guild, wrote an op-ed article for the New York Times, in which he wrote, "...the guild is being assailed. On the National Federation of the Blind’s Web site, the guild is accused of arguing that it is illegal for blind people to use 'readers, either human or machine, to access books that are not available in alternative formats like Braille or audio.' ... The federation, though, points out that blind readers can’t independently use the Kindle 2’s visual, on-screen controls."
On February 27, 2009 Amazon announced that it would give publishers the right to limit text-to-speech on books, but hoped that most copyright holders would not take that path.
Read more about this topic: Authors Guild
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