On June 18, 2009, The Transatlantic Consumer Dialogue (TACD) issued a 2,000 word resolution on the enforcement of copyright, trademarks, patents and other intellectual property rights. The resolution is on the TACD web page here. A press release from the TACD IP-Working Group, with comments from several TACD members, is available on the web here.
The decision to restart the ACTA negotiations makes it important to understand the nature and consequence of proposed agreement. Following a complaint about transparency, this note focuses on damages and injunctions.
At least four imprints of Random House (Ballantine, Dell, Del Rey and Spectra) have turned off text to speech in Kindle books that they give away at a zero price. Random House is owned by Bertelsmann AG, the German publishing giant. What is the rationale for soundproofing* these books?
Here are some examples of DRM’d soundproof books that are free to Kindle users who do not have visual impairments.
A google search using the term: “Text-to-Speech: Not enabled” site:www.amazon.com today gives 13,500 hits. On May 17, 2009, the same search gave 343 hits.