Authors Guild Questions Kindle 2 Audio Feature

Following Amazon’s Kindle 2 press conference yesterday, the Authors Guild executive director Paul Aiken disputed one of the revolutionary features on the new machine.

The Amazon Kindle 2 comes with a new function where a friendly, robotic voice reads any digital book out-loud, like a GPS narrator on your dashboard. According to the Wall Street Journal, Aiken disagreed with this move.

Earlier this year the Authors Guild settled a copyright lawsuit with Google over book scanning efforts, and this could become a new frontier in 21st Century literary law. Here’s more from the article: “‘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.’” (Via Portfolio)

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