Amazon to fit Kindle 2 with silencer

 

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By Reuters

Posted on 2 Mar 2009 at 08:14

Amazon has responded to criticism that a text-to-speech feature on its new Kindle eBook reader helps it sidestep royalty payments by allowing the audio function to be disabled.

Read Barry Collins' thoughts on the 'Kindle Swindle' here

The online retail giant pledged to modify the Kindle 2 so that authors, publishers or any holders to a novel's rights can choose whether to turn on the feature, which takes written text and converts it to human speech.

"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," the firm claims in a statement.

"Nevertheless, we strongly believe many rightsholders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat."

In an editorial titled "The Kindle Swindle" that appeared in the New York Times last week, the president of the Author's Guild, Roy Blount Jr, took Amazon to task for the function on the new Kindle.

The device can read books aloud, but unlike audio books, royalties are not paid to authors. Blount argued the technology Amazon uses to turn text into a human voice is quickly improving, and authors need to be "duly vigilant" about this novel means of transmitting their work.

The guild, which is studying the issue, has called the Kindle's speech function a "significant challenge to the publishing industry." It has recommended its members bring up the issue of the Kindle when negotiating book contracts.

Amazon says rights-owners will be allowed to decide - title by title - whether to enable the function.

Though a tiny fraction of Amazon's business, the Kindle draws strong, regular interest from investors and gadget aficionados.

Read Barry Collins' thoughts on the 'Kindle Swindle' here