April 15, 2009
Is the New Kindle Evil?
I sympathize with the feeling behind these protests, but they are directed at the wrong target.
The protestors rightly condemn the Authors Guild for demanding the removal of the screen reader feature, but the way they are doing it makes Amazon look like a victim. Actually it is the main perpetrator.
The reason that Amazon can turn off the screen reader capability is that the machines use non-free software, controlled by Amazon rather than by the user. If Amazon can turn this off retroactively (does anyone know for certain if they did?), it implies the product has a dangerous back door.
In addition, the Amazon Swindle is designed with Digital Restrictions Management to stop people from sharing. It is a nasty product with an evil goal.
I hope there will be protests against Amazon’s role in these events.
The topic? Why the yielding of Amazon to the pressure from the Authors Guild on the issues related around Text-to-Speech. Is Richard ‘GPL’ Stallman right. Well yes and no. Yes for the fact that in Amazon so disabling the technology it leaves a gaping hole and does not address the the fact that there are some 16 centuries of written material that is completely open to TTS that the Authors Guild has no relationship to. No, in the fact that there are issues related to audio books that are derivative works that authors should be compensated for.
All told though, the right solution is not to be found in the Kindle. The right solution is to be found in Open Source. Stallman ought to get together with Arrington and influence him to include ePub reader software in his tablet if he produces it. Then you go to the Artist Guild and tell them that TTS block is automatic but can be turned on with a software key that can be updated in the XML dictionary. Any public domain works will work with TTS automatically and can be shared.
[Update] More here on the issues of being a Kindle owner.
Filed under Amazon, Persons of Interest by Dr. Dog
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Comments on Is the New Kindle Evil? »
Just to clarify some misconceptions in this article.
TTS is an option that can be turned off or on on the ebook file itself. Text to speech isn’t disabled on the entire kindle device but only on a per novel basis at the request of the publisher. Amazon also notes before you purchase the novel that the book has text to speech disabled allowing the purchaser to know before hand.
Also there wasn’t a backdoor hole for this designed into the device, but was instead added into the latest updated 2.03 of the kindle 2 firmware.
Lastly, I am a big supporter of opensource (I write opensource code, use Ubuntu, and push for others to adopt opensource) I do not work for amazon, but I do appreciate their growing the ebook market, and I love reading my ebooks on the kindle device. Also, I’ll give a shout out for calibre a multi-platform ebook manager.
Text to speech isn’t disabled on the entire kindle device but only on a per novel basis at the request of the publisher. Amazon also notes before you purchase the novel that the book has text to speech disabled allowing the purchaser to know before hand.