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

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

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.
Hide this

Thank you for reading this Techdirt post. With so many things competing for everyone’s attention these days, we really appreciate you giving us your time. We work hard every day to put quality content out there for our community.

Techdirt is one of the few remaining truly independent media outlets. We do not have a giant corporation behind us, and we rely heavily on our community to support us, in an age when advertisers are increasingly uninterested in sponsoring small, independent sites — especially a site like ours that is unwilling to pull punches in its reporting and analysis.

While other websites have resorted to paywalls, registration requirements, and increasingly annoying/intrusive advertising, we have always kept Techdirt open and available to anyone. But in order to continue doing so, we need your support. We offer a variety of ways for our readers to support us, from direct donations to special subscriptions and cool merchandise — and every little bit helps. Thank you.

–The Techdirt Team

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


Reader Comments

Subscribe: RSS

View by: Time | Thread


  1. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:12pm

    Pretty much every computer or smartphone has text to speech built in...

    link to this | view in thread ]

  2. icon
    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 ;)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  3. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  4. icon
    Sam_K (profile), 24 Aug 2010 @ 5:45pm

    Re:

    Dang it! I meant to type "Steve Jobs can do no wrong"

    link to this | view in thread ]

  5. identicon
    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!)

    link to this | view in thread ]

  6. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  7. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  8. icon
    drm made me into a pirate (profile), 25 Aug 2010 @ 1:36am

    hardcore itardation

    itardation is spreading into hollywood

    link to this | view in thread ]

  9. identicon
    Anonymous Coward, 25 Aug 2010 @ 2:30am

    Somewhere in his evil layer Steve Jobs laughs.

    "Muwhahahahaha!"

    link to this | view in thread ]

  10. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  11. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  12. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  13. identicon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]

  14. icon
    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.

    link to this | view in thread ]


Follow Techdirt
Essential Reading
Techdirt Deals
Report this ad  |  Hide Techdirt ads
Techdirt Insider Discord

The latest chatter on the Techdirt Insider Discord channel...

Loading...
Recent Stories

This site, like most other sites on the web, uses cookies. For more information, see our privacy policy. Got it
Close

Email This

This feature is only available to registered users. Register or sign in to use it.