Round up #12: DTP changes, DOJ

DOJ reaches agreement with universities regarding Kindle DX

The Kindle is a huge step forward for print disabled people. While audio book alternatives have been available in the past, they have not always been easy to obtain.  When obtained, they have either been expensive (commercial audiobooks) or might require certification (free versions).

Computers with text-to-speech have been a way to go, but they were inconvenient.  Even a laptop is not easy to manage on public transit or on a day in the park. 

The Kindle means that those with these special needs can get books just like everybody else.  Not only that, they can share those books with family members.  The books can be both sight-read and accessed audibly.  For one purchase price (which is significantly lower than a large print book or an audiobook), both those with challenges and those without can read the same book…at the same time (with two devices on the account).

The first blow to this was the Authors Guild and the publishers complaining that having the text-to-speech on the Kindle infringed on their rights.  It doesn’t…there is a big legal difference between the “fixed” format that is an audiobook and the streaming access provided by TTS.  I’ve written about this before, as you can read in this previous post.  I include links to the documentation there.

Amazon backed off, and let the choice as to whether individual books have text-to-speech be enabled or not be up to the publishers.  This was a tricky situation.  The text-to-speech was legal…Amazon has maintained that, and I agree.  However, it was also legal for the publishers to block it…as long as there is at least one version of each of their audiobooks that has “read-aloud” enabled.  It satisfies the Copyright Office guidelines, even if you have to certify a print disability to get that version.

I think this disproportionately disadvantages the disabled.  I also think it’s a bad business decision, but time will tell on that.  It seems like a mistake to protect your audiobook business at the expense of your e-book business.  One of these two is expanding rapidly.  I also think that having TTS may help the audiobook business, because it accustoms people to listening to books.  I never used to do that, but I now I do it often in the car. 

The first publisher to actually block the TTS was the giant, Random House.  Despite protests and a boycott, including the involvement of a large group of organizations that serve the disabled (see the Reading Rights Coalition  website), RH seems to have been feeling okay about it.  That may have encouraged Penguin and the Hachette group to begin blocking TTS on some of their books.

With my position on this, you might be surprised that I’m fine with the agreements recently reached between the United States Department of Justice and universities involved in a pilot program to use the Kindle DX in the classroom.   This agreement results in the universities abandoning the program…for now.

The argument is this: visually impaired students are not able to use the Kindle as well as non-visually impaired students.  It’s not that they can’t use the text-reading capability as well…they can.  It’s that they can’t select the books, can’t search, can’t annotate, can’t export as well.

Amazon has already announced a software update coming this year that will give the Kindle audible menus (and a super large font).  They may be doing more…I’d love to see voice navigation, but I don’t think we’ll get that this time.  It’s important to note that the text-to-speech doesn’t just benefit the visually impaired.  Since it enables “autoturn” of pages, it helps those with debilitating conditions (like muscular sclerosis) as well.  Perhaps we’ll just get an autoturn that works without the TTS…that would be a relatively easy fix.

So, this agreement doesn’t hurt Amazon or Kindleers, in the long run.  We can bet that the updates will make the Kindle satisfy the requirements of equal use under the Americans with Disabilities Act.  Before this, it was sort of gray…I would bet that it won’t be afterwards.  That may result in much more adoption of the Kindle for the classroom.  It’s going to give us a more accessible device (which is a good thing).  For those Kindleers without print challenges, they’ll get more capabilities they may choose to use as well.

Department of Justice statement 

Changes to the Digital Text Platform

The self-publishing revolution stimulated by Amazon’s Digital Text Platform (and to a lesser degree, other e-book publishing services), has the potential to turn publishing around.  Both in the sense that it may expand greatly, and that there may be different people at the front.  It’s going to allow authors to have much more control over their own work.  Just like digital video technology allows for something like Paranormal Activity to emerge (and, by the way, to be watched instantly when you buy it from Amazon), so digital publishing will create new star authors. 

Those book tend to be exclusive to Amazon…while authors can publish them in different formats as well, I’m confident that the majority of these DTP indies are available only through the Kindle store. 

Recently, Amazon has made two really significant changes.

One is opening the DTP to indies outside the US.   Prior to this, you had to be in the US to put a book in the Kindle store.  At first, we gave a worldwide license…now we can choose countries for distribution.  That’s not one of the new changes, though.  It’s that somebody who lives in the UK, or Australia, or Singapore, or anywhere can publish to the Kindle store.  That should provide us with some very interesting new perspectives.

The other change is making DRM (Digital Rights Management) optional.  DRM is what controls on how many devices a book can be, for one thing.  I do have a DRM free version of one of my books (yes, in Amazon’s AZW format) that I can send for reviews.  What I did was send the HTML file for conversion to Amazon…that gave me a DRM free file.  When you send your own personal files to Amazon for conversion, they come back without DRM: any Kindle can read them.

Now, authors can have Kindle books in the store without DRM.  If someone buys it, they can send it to anybody with a Kindle.  That person does not have to be on the first person’s account.

This is a very interesting decision to make.  On the one hand, many people simply hate DRM with a passion.  There are people who say they won’t buy any file that has it.

On the other hand, if there are books without DRM, people will distribute them freely.  Hypothetically, that could cut down on paid sales…although that’s not entirely clear.

Before you start dancing in the streets, though, realize that the book will still presumably be in AZW format.  That means that you can’t read it on your computer (without the free Kindle for PC app), or on a nook or a Sony.  Someone may develop a converter…but that’s not clear.

Also, just because you can send it to someone else doesn’t mean that it’s legal. 

Suppose you buy a book without DRM.  You put it up on a website and let anybody download it.  You’d be in violation of copyright.  It would be like people who put “pirated” MP3s on the web.  MP3s can’t have DRM…but that doesn’t make it legal.

So, authors…what do you think?  Are you going to drop the DRM?

Readers, how much of a difference will it make to you?

This post by Bufo Calvin originally appeared in the I Love My Kindle blog.