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Authors Guild Silent Over iBooks Text-To-Speech
Last year we discussed news that the Authors Guild took issue with the Kindle's text-to-speech function, claiming it was illegal for the device to read their books aloud. Amazon disagreed, but said they were willing to disable the feature upon request from rightsholders. Now, jamie notes a recent article by David Pogue at the NY Times in which he points out that Apple's free iBooks app does the same thing, yet the Authors Guild has remained silent. Quoting: "... Now swipe down the page with two fingers to make the iPhone start reading the book to you, out loud, with a synthesized voice. It even turns the pages automatically and keeps going until you tap with two fingers to stop it. Yes, 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." That said, the feature was certainly noticed during the launch of the iPad, so perhaps the Authors Guild has other reasons for holding their peace.
I find that an unlikely explanation. It's more likely that there's something going on between the Guild and Apple.
The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
The douchers that are hamstringing the text-to-speech providers need to be bitch-slapped, twice.
'We are trying to prove ourselves wrong as quickly as possible, because only in that way can we find progress.' RPF
If I have the ability to buy a 10$ paper back book and have it read to me, why the hell would I buy the 40$ audio book?
Have you listened to a audio book read by a person compared to the same work done by a computer? The person doesn't even have to be very good to win that battle. It's an interesting conversation in light of the potential of future tech, and to be sure it's getting better, but there's a long way to go before professional book readers will be looking for work.