Amazon appears headed towards a showdown with the Authors Guild over text-to-speech technology.
The Authors Guild seems to be of the opinion that the Kindle 2’s Read-to-Me feature is ripping off authors in terms of audiobook rights. They used a quote from an audio expert as ammo, but that expert doesn’t agree with their ideas about Read-to-Me.
Roy Blount, Jr., president of the Authors Guild said the Amazon Kindle 2 was swindling authors in terms of audiobook revenue, because of its Read-to-Me feature. He even quoted Andy Aaron of IBM’s Thomas J Watson research group speech team but that same expert said that if you compare Read-to-Me to an audiobook, there’s no real choice between the two.
“I’m a big believer in (text-to-speech) and a booster of it,” said Aaron. “But I don’t think at this point, or for the foreseeable future, it’s going to compete meaningfully with a professional book reader… Am I going to sit down and put my feet up and listen to text-to-speech read ‘War And Peace’ or Harry Potter for six to eight hours? For someone who has the choice, I think they would rather get an audio book.”
Sources: cnet | RealTechNews
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