Slashdot Mirror

← Back to Stories (view on slashdot.org)

Remote Kill Flags Surface In Kindle

Posted by CmdrTaco on from the because-they-can dept.

PL/SQL Guy writes "The Kindle has a number of 'remote kill' flags built in to the hardware that, among other things, allow the text-to-speech function to be disabled at any time on a book-by-book basis. 'Beginning yesterday, Random House Publishers began to disable text-to-speech remotely. The TTS function has apparently been remotely disabled in over 40 works so far.' But what no one at Amazon will discuss is what other flags are lurking in the Kindle format: is there a 'read only once' flag? A 'no turning the pages backwards' flag?"

3 of 630 comments (clear)

  1. Re:For the doubters by geminidomino · · Score: 0, Troll

    Shock of Shocks (no pun intended).

    All of the Song and Ice of Fire books also have it disabled. Guess I won't be reading Dance With Dragons after all. Fuck them.

  2. Re:They asked for it by FishWithAHammer · · Score: 0, Troll

    It infringes upon the creator's rights. That, in and of itself, is a "hurt" whether you choose to rationalize that away or not.

    --
    "You can either have software quality or you can have pointer arithmetic, but you cannot have both at the same time."
  3. Re:They asked for it by HTH+NE1 · · Score: 0, Troll

    Session musicians - already paid
    Studio Engineers - already paid
    Studio rental - already paid
    Production costs - already paid
    Cover artist - already paid
    Distribution costs - already paid

    So where do you think the money comes from to pay these people?

    Came from. Get your tenses right.

    --
    Oh, say does that Star-Spangled Banner entwine / The myrtle of Venus with Bacchus's vine?