The Kindle Two: Audio Controversy or Industry Stupidity?
No release of a new and improved version of an already powerful piece of technology would be as interesting without a little controversy. Apparently the Authors Guild is upset about the new Kindle’s text-to-speech feature, claiming that it could “undermine the market for audio books” (Associated Press). The Wall Street Journal has a bit more to say on that: Some publishers and agents expressed concern over a new, experimental feature that reads text aloud with a computer-generated voice. “They don’t have the right to read a book out loud,” said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. “That’s an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.” Now, quite a few folks with far more authority than myself have already spoken up on the issue, including Robert J. Sawyer and Neil Gaiman. They’ve made some fairly good arguments about the whole thing and I’d like to toss my two cents into the game. The problem with all this is that it is flirting dangerously close to the same line the music industry so idiotically crossed. And the music industry hasn’t contracted so much as literature has. True, as I’ve mentioned before, readership hasn’t actually drastically changed. Book sales are still high, with exception to everything following this massive recession we’re so firmly stuck in, and the same amount of people, if not a little more, are reading books now as much as they were about ten years ago–not to mention that most teenagers read a lot more these days than their parents did simply because access to the written word, particularly on subjects kids are interested in, is far better thanks to the Interwebs. What does this mean for the book industry if it crosses the line? It could spell disaster for it. The music industry was enormous when piracy first came into the public sphere. When they tried to stomp down on it by imposing harsh punishments and DRMing everything imaginable, they found that folks were far more willing to flip the bird to the big record labels and switch to the indie scene. But, the music industry didn’t die. It was big enough to survive its mistakes and it has done a decent job doing so. iTunes, as much as I despise it, has helped curb the piracy empire, though it hasn’t stopped. The music industry was at least smart enough to realize that it needed to begin changing its ways if it wanted to continue being profitable. The book industry, however, could find themselves in a horrible position by trying to impose the same rules. With all these electronic reading devices out there, if the book industry isn’t careful it could find that people will stop buying books entirely and use the electronic formats to get books for free. Add on to the fact that there is a thriving indie book community (podcasting, blog novels, etc.) and you can see where being music-industry-anal could spell certain doom. Audio rights are important; I’m not going to deny that. All rights are important, but when we start talking about suing Amazon for having text-to-speech technology installed on the Kindle Two, it’s like saying we’re going to sue mothers for reading to their children. Why should Amazon have to pay what would likely be an absurd amount of money for a feature that isn’t all that great anyway? Yeah, okay, I get the argument that some day technology will progress enough to make text-to-speech sound like something other than a craptastic, semi-realistic, mostly-robotic, humanoid demon. But that’s not happening tomorrow and it’s probably not happening for years. When that happens, then start bitching. Until it does, why can’t we stick with this feature? It won’t influence audiobook sales because people who like audiobooks are still going to buy them. A robotic voice cannot meet the production quality of a good audiobook. Period. And the people who are likely to use this feature regularly are probably not going to be people who would have paid the somewhat high price for an audiobook in the first place. Before we toss the almighty book of lawsuits at Amazon for adding a useful feature to their new techno-gizmo, we should consider the ramifications of that and the reality of the situation as a whole. We’re treading on dangerous ground in considering using the law to thwart technological progress; we’d be one step away from suing parents for reading to their kids, or blind people using a computer to read a book to themselves (a book they already paid $14.99 for)–or people reading to blind people, perhaps. When Amazon’s technology is able to actually replace audiobooks, then you can start demanding compensation. And maybe that will never happen. Maybe the next step for the Kindle (the Kindle Three, perhaps) is to make it capable of having both eBooks and audiobooks. That would make everyone happy, right? Imagine if Amazon’s enormous selling engine made it easier to buy and sell audiobooks through a wireless device? Consider that before we start making rash decisions and crossing the line.
SoD Chapter Two: Of the Lives of Loe
The Luu’tre had struck ground. Sort of. She had hit something hard and unmoving, that much was clear, but when James and the others came out into the tempest they found the ship held at bay by something rocky, porous, and the color of the sun at sunset over thin mustache clouds.Laura knew then what they had struck: a coral reef. Captain Norp cursed and fluttered about the deck, running one way and another, commanding and demanding to pull lines one way and then the next. Everyone else had already accepted that no wind would pull the Luu’tre from the great mass beneath them. They needed the tides.Laura felt alone and crowded all at once. There was so much she didn’t understand about this world. Why did the great current in the Straight of Loe run so swiftly? Why did it run all the way down the coast of Traea? And most of all, why did this world exist in the first place? James had shown her his magical dictionary, humorously called How Not To Be a Barbarian, Fifteenth Edition. She was dismayed to find that the author, one Azimus Barthalamule, had gone into hiding and would no longer be supplying new entries. She wanted to know what was going on just like everyone else, and this little book that had once been sixty pages was their only connection.Laura most of all wanted to understand why Luthien, a man she couldn’t quite remember, even now some weeks later and after having seen his face in Sempur, had wanted her in the first place. What did she have that Luthien, a man of apparently untold power, wanted?Now she looked down over the deck of the Luu’tre and into the great red and pink mass below. Great waves bubbled and exploded. They weren’t going anywhere anytime soon. Darl was right. They were grounded.James stood beside her and she tried to give him a sympathetic smile. He had tried to hide his emotions from her, but she could see through him, even if he wouldn’t admit it to himself. He was terrified and disappointed in himself. She stopped speaking to him about his magic to make things easier. She wouldn’t want to be reminded of her faults either.But James was in bad shape, and she knew it despite not having a clue how the magics of this mysterious world worked. What she did know was that anyone with a hand that was constantly healing was not in good health; James needed more powerful healing magic and fast.James didn’t return her smile, though he glanced at her with sunken eyes. “Coral,” he said.She nodded. “I wonder how far it goes. Maybe it’s like the Great Barrier Reef.”“Maybe.”“You remember that Discovery Channel show we watched,” she started, attempting to keep up the conversation. It had been too long since they’d talked as friends. “The one with all the little orange fish.”“Clown Fish,” he said.“Right. And that really long slithery snake with the pointy teeth.”“Moray Eel.”“Right. So you remember it?”“Yeah.” He eyed the reef below. “It gave me nightmares for a week when they showed those sharks eating the seals, though.”“I remember. You wouldn’t stay at my place because we had fish.” She laughed. “You were afraid of the goldfish.”James frowned. Then with enthusiasm he said, “Those were huge goldfish though. They had those big eyes too.”Together they laughed.Laura turned to look out into the vast ocean beyond and found herself face to face with Captain Norp and his tiny Littlekind face. He grinned and looked her straight in the eye. She yelped and jumped back.“Don’t sneak up on people like that!” She cried.“Beggin’ your pardon, ma’am. Couldn’t help listenin’.”“No, I imagine not. You nearly scared me half-to-death.”“Better than full-to-death.”Laura grumbled.“What’s the Discovery Channel?”“It’s a T.V. channel,” she said instinctively. Catching herself, she corrected, “Where I come from it’s a visual show about nature.”“What, like a play?”“Kind of.”“Why’s it called Discovery Channel?”“Well, because they discover stuff.”“Bout nature?”“Yes.”Captain Norp rubbed his chin. “Sounds boring,” he said, ending the conversation and hopping off the railing to the ground. He skipped back to the bridge. A moment later his little arms could be seen grasping the wheel, turning it one way and then another. Curses followed.Laura groaned. The Littlekind was going to drive himself madder than he already was if he didn’t let up. Or, he was going to drive everyone else mad with his gallivanting about with concerns and quibbles. She watched Captain Norp turn the wheel, run one way, then other, and slip down the stairs to pull on ropes and scream out commands. When she turned back she noticed that James had gone. She frowned. Whatever was going on in his head he wasn’t going to talk to her about it, even though she was his best friend. And he certainly wasn’t going to talk to any of the others.Triska came to the railing from across the other side, taking care not to get hit by the whirl of ropes and pullies around the center mast. Laura returned the woman’s smile out of courtesy; she was too worried about James to smile with sincerity.“He’ll be alright,” Triska said.Yeah right. “I just wish I could help him,” Laura said, letting her weight fall to the railing. “He won’t let me. He saved my life and I just want to help him, but I can’t.”“He has to help himself. We can’t do anything for him now.”“I don’t believe that. There has to be something we can do,” she pleaded.“Would he let us even if there was?”No, she thought.“Just let him get over this. He has a lot weighing down on his heart.”Triska patted her arm reassuringly and walked away. She looked back over the railing into the pink below. In the background she heard the wind battering the sails. Voices spewed commands left and right, ropes became taut, snapping with resonating sound, and the ocean roared a violent triumphant note as she lunged her watery arms over