Why Hasn't The Authors Guild Freaked Out About iPad Ebook Text-to-Speech?

from the inquiring-minds-want-to-know dept

Tue, Aug 24th 2010 5:03pm — Mike Masnick

Back in March, we pointed out how odd it was that the Authors Guild hadn't freaked out about the text-to-speech capabilities of the iPad, which would allow for ebooks to be read aloud. Of course, this was the same feature on the Kindle which caused the Authors Guild to freak out (with absolutely no legal basis), leading Amazon to make that feature optional.

It appears others are noticing this strange silence on the part of the Authors Guild. David Pogue, over at the NY Times wonders if the Authors Guild just wasn't paying attention:

This is exactly the feature that debuted in the Amazon Kindle and was then removed when publishers screamed bloody murder. But somehow, so far, Apple has gotten away with it, maybe because nobody's even realized this feature is in there.

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Filed Under: copyright, ebooks, ipad, text to speech
Companies: amazon, apple, authors guild

14 Comments

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Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:12pm

Pretty much every computer or smartphone has text to speech built in...
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Pierre Wolff (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:26pm

given the ratio of eBooks sold for the iPad vs. the Kindle, i'm not surprised no one noticed ;)
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Sam K (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:39pm

There is a strong cross correlation between being a professional creative and being an Apple fanboi. I would not be surprised at all if "Steve jobs can no no wrong" was a strong contributing factor in their acceptance of the iPad's text-to-speech features.
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- Sam_K (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:45pm
  
  Re:
  Dang it! I meant to type "Steve Jobs can do no wrong"
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  - Cynyr (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 6:24pm
    
    Re: Re:
    "Steve jobs can no no wrong" is about right some times... like how my 2 year old would say it.
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hans, 24 Aug 2010 @ 6:24pm

Not sure it was "removed"
I'm pretty sure the text-to-speech was not removed, but merely made into a publisher controlled feature. (That way the blind can hate the publishers instead of Amazon!)
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- Hephaestus (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:18am
  
  Re: Not sure it was "removed"
  Reminds me of an old joke .....
  
  Why do the heads of the Authors Guild smell?
  
  So blind people can hate them also.
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Chris Eastvedt (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 7:49pm

The Author's Guild got a bunch of flack from the visually impaired community the first time around. They probably got tired of being called douchebags and decided to let this one go.
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- Hephaestus (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:15am
  
  Re:
  "The Author's Guild got a bunch of flack from the visually impaired community the first time around."
  
  Funny thing that ... telling blind people they are shit out of luck and can't text to speech because the authors guild wants to SEE more profits.
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drm made me into a pirate (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 1:36am

hardcore itardation
itardation is spreading into hollywood
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 2:30am

Somewhere in his evil layer Steve Jobs laughs.

"Muwhahahahaha!"
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Sean T Henry (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 5:59am

Answer
The reason why they did not fight it is, they are to busy preparing to fight electronic braille.
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Pixelation, 25 Aug 2010 @ 7:29am

Waiting to sue Apple
They have decided to put it off until the lawsuit becomes really lucrative. They want a big bite.
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Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 8:17am

Because they know Jobs has enough money to fight God in a court of law and win. If they take the fight to Jobs and lose, it would set precendence to all ebook manufacturers to put in text-to-speech software.
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