The Authors Guild is claiming text to speech functions in software programs and e-book readers violate their copyrights, and should be turned off unless they are paid more for the extra functionality. Obviously the geniuses among the Authors Guild are on to something. There are many similar areas of functionality to be exploited by the Authors Guild. Here are some thoughts on how the Guild might squeeze more money from readers, if they want to expand upon their new anti-consumer business strategy:
- Computers come with different screen resolutions. Why not charge more for using the higher resolution screen, since it is more pleasant and usable to read a copyrighted work?
- Maybe the Guild could encourage Amazon to have tiered prices for works shown on Kindle 2, one for basic service, using somewhat fuzzy, ugly fonts with poor contrast, and another “premium” version that is sharper and rendered with more readable and attractive fonts?
- For works of non-fiction, perhaps charge more for a version that allows the cut and paste of text, since obviously people value not having to type quotes by hand for research papers.
In general, why stop with blocking functionality to serve the needs to readers from people who are blind, visually impaired, suffer from dyslexia, or the quadriplegic community? There are many persons who are not yet reading disabled, but could be rendered disabled by the lawyers of the Authors Guild.
As noted by Cory Doctorow and others, the Guild’s hostility to their potential customers may of course have some downsides. For example, as Cory notes, authors might “look like grasping, greedy jerks.” Indeed, that is pretty much how the Guild looks right now.
The Reading Rights Coalition views on this topic are here: http://www.readingrights.org/