On the current controversy about the Kindle’s text-to-speech; I twittered my thoughts about it, because stuff like this I normally twitter. Why? Because the chance for interactivity is greater, with all the fresh URLs, talking points, and so on. It’s like blogging, but people can interrupt while I’m blogging, and inspire other thoughts based from that.
On the other hand, Twitter’s archive is about as dependable as GMail running every single time you need it, so here are the tweets once more—with relevant extra links and side conversation included.
But before the tweets, this all started with:
- Author’s Guild claims text-to-speech software is illegal
- “Kindle Swindle?” editorial rant by the New York Times ((Yeah, you don’t get to be in the pageset slideshow, NYT, because you destructively redirect.))
- Dan Moren responds in Macworld
- John Scalzi responds
- Cory Doctorow responds
- Neil Gaiman responds
- Jason Pinter responds to Neil Gaiman
- Wil Wheaton responds (bonus mp3 demo of text-2-speech versus human voice)
- Jamais Cascio on DRML and text-to-speech
- Lucienne Diver responds
- John Scalzi rebuts DRML (and more)
- Jeremiah Tolbert responds
Beneath the cut, my thoughts, in Twitter form, and also mostly ordered from oldest to newest (rather than the other way around on Twitter); tweets may be re-ordered for clarity.
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ArachneJericho I sorta look at all the concern about Kindle text-to-speech and laugh at all the fear, because everyone who worries doesn’t have a Kindle 2. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:22:44 -0800
ArachneJericho If you don’t have a Kindle 2, you don’t know that its speech is the Mac’s text-to-speech. And when has Apple been a concern to authors, eh? Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:24:28 -0800
ArachneJericho All this talk about DRML in the future also makes me roll my eyes, because I know how hard it is to actually *do* things like that. I code. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:25:55 -0800
ArachneJericho This is like watching people freak out (or… worship) the coming of the Singularity. Why is a Mac different from the Kindle in this regard? Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:27:33 -0800
ArachneJericho Basically, the Kindle is a computing device, just like the Mac is. People are freaking out because the Kindle is devoted to books. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:28:01 -0800
ArachneJericho If the Kindle were a cellphone, people wouldn’t look twice. But because it’s OMG Amazon, and Amazon = BOOKS (no they don’t) y’all FREAK. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:28:47 -0800
ArachneJericho If you don’t own a Kindle 2, or a Kindle 1 for that matter, you don’t know that it just got easier to buy Audible audiobooks for it. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:29:27 -0800
ArachneJericho So basically, the idea that the Kindle, just because it’s an ebook reader, must add in extra digital rights, is (a) prejudice and (b) silly. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:30:12 -0800
ArachneJericho Yes, I’ve gone ahead and called it “silly” even though people I like have that opinion. Not going to win me any favors but… jeez louise. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:30:49 -0800
ArachneJericho At that point, you might as well charge extra rights to every computer on the planet. Why don’t you propose that? No legal leg to stand on. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:32:21 -0800
ArachneJericho And that is why Kindle’s text-to-speech is pretty much like restricting the ability of reading to your kids or loved ones. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:34:43 -0800
ArachneJericho Hah, or rather, restricting the Kindle’s text-to-speech is like restricting the ability of reading to your kids or loved ones. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:35:06 -0800
ArachneJericho Plus, audiobooks are more expensive. Are you truly proposing that we penalize the blind money-wise here? Because that’s what it would be. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:35:34 -0800
ArachneJericho Or are you proposing to force the installation of, basically, DRM that forces people to not get a book read aloud by a machine? Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:36:01 -0800
ArachneJericho Fair is all good and well, but it comes at the cost of oversight. Back when Republicans had, I dunno, *morals*, this was a legit concern. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:36:32 -0800
ArachneJericho Anyways: that’s the supreme argument against suing Amazon about Kindle’s text-to-speech. It’s a computing device. They ALL have that ability Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:37:37 -0800
ArachneJericho You would need to track down and sue every last owner of a desktop, a laptop, a cellphone, a reading device, a netbook, even mp3 devices. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:39:30 -0800
ArachneJericho Because they all threaten you at this point if you think text-to-speech is a legitimate threat. Like the music giants worried about digital. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:40:17 -0800
ArachneJericho Not because the parallel is straight and direct with the music giants (it isn’t) but because of the scope of any possible enforcement. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:40:40 -0800
ArachneJericho And not because the scope is too wide–that didn’t stop DRM–but because the scope violates user/reader rights. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:41:24 -0800
pablod @ArachneJericho “when has Apple been a concern to authors” you say? heh. Wait for it. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:35:46 -0800
ArachneJericho @pablod I might as well have said: when is every single computing device a concern? At that point you may as well just extend DRM. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:42:08 -0800
ArachneJericho @pablod In fact, the thing that amuses me is that *if* by some random chance text-to-speech is determined to be a separate audio right…. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:42:46 -0800
ArachneJericho @pablod … it will kill almost any chance of that feature extending past Amazon, who *could* pay for it when many others could not afford. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:43:23 -0800
JeremiahTolbert @ArachneJericho that’s an excellent point. But they don’t care who buys the rights, so long as they get their filthy lucre. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:49:52 -0800
ArachneJericho @pablod Amazon wouldn’t want this to go through, but if it did, then Amazon’s digital life as an empire just got extended. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:43:47 -0800
ArachneJericho @pablod And that’s frankly a win-win for Amazon. Or rather, win-biggerfuturewin for Amazon. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:44:26 -0800
pablod @ArachneJericho agreed. completely and utterly. the author’s guild lives in 1978, apparently. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:44:51 -0800
Mulluane @ArachneJericho you see this? http://tinyurl.com/aofeaj Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:42:07 -0800
ArachneJericho @Mulluane I hadn’t! Go @scalzi, go @scalzi, go @scalzi…. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:45:48 -0800
ArachneJericho For folks who don’t follow @pablod (you should! #followfriday), we were talking about how demanding additional rights for text-to-speech…. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:46:49 -0800
ArachneJericho … will result in extending Amazon’s life as a digital empire, because Amazon can afford it and just about everyone else won’t be able to. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:47:15 -0800
ArachneJericho So basically, however this debate turns out legally, Amazon win-wins. Or rather, win-versus-future-bigger-win. Please, please chill out. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:48:00 -0800
JeremiahTolbert New blog post: On the Amazon Kindle 2 Controversy http://tinyurl.com/apz89m Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:48:32 -0800
ArachneJericho @JeremiahTolbert Heh. Filthy lucre for the near-term future. Less so in the far. Apple, Microsoft, will FIGHT this thing. Army of lawyers! Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:54:47 -0800
JeremiahTolbert @ArachneJericho that’ll be one of the few times I end up on Microsoft’s side when that happens. The thinking behind this is so assinine. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:55:43 -0800
ArachneJericho @JeremiahTolbert Totally agree. One of the few times I agree with every single computing giant in the industry and their army of lawyers. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 10:58:16 -0800
ArachneJericho @JeremiahTolbert Excellent post! Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:00:05 -0800
JeremiahTolbert When the kindle can render an audio version of a book as good as a person, we will have bigger problems.: the AI hunter killer drones. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:05:48 -0800
ArachneJericho @JeremiahTolbert Yah and that’s why I said it was like people fearing the Singularity. Because that would mean the Singularity had *arrived* Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:08:51 -0800
JeremiahTolbert I for one welcome our new AI-powered Kindle overlords. Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:06:09 -0800
ArachneJericho @JeremiahTolbert *g* Fri, 27 Feb 2009 11:09:11 -0800
Spontaneous ∂erivation 