Is the book industry ready to drive?
CNET’s Greg Sandoval says Amazon ‘misread’ the book sector by ‘making optional’ the text-to-speech feature on the Kindle 2.
“Amazon might have avoided the controversy, had the company enlisted the counsel from important constituents in the publishing industry before launch. This way they could have a) learned about the objections quietly; b) done any haggling there and maybe come to a financial arrangement; c) scrapped the whole idea of text-to-speech if there was too much push back.”
I don’t buy this. I think Bezos knew exactly what he was doing when he ‘sprung’ the text-to-speech feature without warning. Or, more accurately, he determined that there would be two possible outcomes: that the Author’s Guild would react against it; or they’d accept it. Historically, the AG prefers a senseless fight, and I doubt that any amount of ‘counsel’ would have been useful.
Here’s what Bezos said when he ‘back pedaled’:
“Kindle 2’s experimental text-to-speech feature is legal… No copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given… We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver’s seat.”
Of note is that Amazon doesn’t believe it’s done anything wrong, but more importantly, is the phrasing of the second sentence. Note the words ‘comfortable’ and ‘in the driver’s seat’ — Amazon has effectively said, ‘okay, you can drive for a little bit, if that’ll shut you up.’
But far from misreading the industry, Amazon has done two positive things. First, it exposed the AG’s absurd call that text-to-speech could be considered an audiobook. Second, and most importantly, Amazon has given them a little concession, rather than fight the issue. It’s like letting a child (or a blind 90 year old, in this case) hold the wheel of the car for a short time, but not control the pedals.
And so it should be. The AG has proven that the industry is incapable of taking control here — they aren’t fit to drive into the future. The industry needs Amazon, it needs the Kindle. If the AG is going to fight Amazon (and there are fights to be had), it should not be about something as ludicrous as providing readers with another way to consume their product.
