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)

Create a social media strategy, launch your campaign, and track the results in our Social Media Marketing Boot Camp starting February 16. The online event and workshop will feature speakers including The Onion‘s Baratunde Thurston (left), Facebook’s Morin Oluwole, and bitly’s Tim Devane. Register now.