* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
Big 5 publishers sue Amazon’s Audible over AI speech to text
Back when Amazon added text-to-speech (with the Kindle 2), they seemed surprised that the publishers objected.
That was software which read the book aloud. I still use a version of it just about every workday, to listen to books in the car.
The publishers claimed that it infringed on their audiobooks. I didn’t buy that then: it’s not just that the experience of the two was very different, but it was that TTS doesn’t create a recorded version of it. It’s streaming, just another way to access the text, like making the font bigger.
I wrote this about that issue, just about 10 years ago:
What eventually happened was that publishers were allowed to insert code into an e-book to block text-to-speech, although they were required to have an accessible version which was available to people who could certify disabilities (and not necessarily, and this is important, to the general public).
I thought blocking TTS was ill-advised from a business standpoint: for one thing, I consume books much more quickly when I have a TTS option, meaning I need more books.
Now, ten years later, almost none of them do block text-to-speech…so I guess I turned out to be right. 😉
That and yes, I thought it was inherently unfair.
Now, all five of the big publishers:
Hachette
Harper Collins
Macmillan
Penguin Random House
Simon & Schuster
along with two other big publishers
Chronicle Books
Scholastic (they have Harry Potter in the USA)
are jointly filing against a new feature.
It does the opposite of text-to-speech.
While you are listening to an Audible audiobook, the software can show you, in your app, the words which are being said aloud.
This technology has improved remarkably, just over the past few years. Speech recognition, of course, enables Amazon’s Alexa, but also Google Assistant, Siri, Cortana, and so on.
I’m surprised at how good the free transcription app
I’ve used it at work (with everybody’s permission). Just set my phone on the desk between us in a meeting, start it recording…and the transcription is probably 90% accurate or so (mostly messing up names), and can be exported.
Similarly, Microsoft Stream can automatically produce a transcript of a video…and viewers can use that to search for where a specific word appears, then jump right to that part of the video: super useful!
Here is Amazon’s demonstration of “Audible Captions”:
which allows authorized entities to make versions available for people with disabilities without first obtaining permission from the rightsholder.
Amazon is not that kind of authorized entity (I assume), and they aren’t marketing this for people with disabilities (they are pushing its use in schools, but aren’t limiting it to that).
It seems to me that the situations where someone has an Audible book (those are relatively expensive, compared to print books) and doesn’t have access to being able to sight read the book but needs to do that…well, that seems less likely to me than having someone with a print challenge in the house. Also, someone who sight reads is not, by definition, in the population of people with disabilities, while someone who can’t sight read due to a diagnosable condition is.
If the process does not create a “fixed version”, but is only visible while the book is being read, Amazon has more of an argument.
gives you a way to read what was filed, which was done in part to prevent Amazon from releasing it next month (in conjunction with the new school year).
My guess?
Amazon has to withdraw the feature, at least from general use. I don’t think they’ll work out a deal to actually pay the publishers for the rights, and I think a court would consider this to be an unauthorized distribution of a written text.
New technology will continue to push us into new legal quandaries.
There are virtual reality experiences now where you can read books…but those are typically public domain (not under copyright protection).
Suppose Amazon makes a VR experience to read Kindle books (I really hope they do).
Suppose further, which is the case with some apps, you can simultaneously share that experience with someone else.
Would that qualify as a public performance? Is the VR experience of reading it like a movie adaptation?
Interesting times…
What do you think? Does this infringe? Should Amazon have anticipated the objection (apparently, publishers sent notifications before the filing)? If they did, what’s the motivation in releasing it anyway? If this feature is legitimized, do you think you would use it…sight read along with a book in your Audible app? Feel free to tell me and my readers what you think by commenting on this post.
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
In the almost ten years that I’ve been writing this blog (the first post was August 28, 2009), one of my favorite things has been interacting with the readers.
That used to happen a lot more. When I started out, I averaged 1,000 new words a day, but in more recent times, I just haven’t been able to do that. I’ve been trying to write more narratives again, but without that, the blog doesn’t tend to provoke many comments…and I miss that. I think my long time readers do, too.
One of those long time readers and amongst my most frequent commenters is Lady Galaxy, who recently suggested that I write something once a week with the intent of increasing interaction.
It’s a good idea. 🙂
I think the best way to do that is to do one or more polls (which I’ve done throughout the past decade).
I’ve decided to name this series #WDYTWed. WDYT is an internet abbreviation for “What Do You Think?”, and I’m going to do them on Wednesdays. Hopefully, every Wednesday, but we’ll see how that goes.
Before I give you a chance to express yourself with some blogs, I do have to say…it was really frustrating last week! I had several polls I wanted to be multiple choice. I published the post, saw that they weren’t (I’m pretty sure I said they should be). I went back in and very deliberately saved them as multiple choice, and they still weren’t! I know that was hard for some of you, and it meant the data wasn’t as robust as I wanted it to be. I noticed that WordPress changed the host source of the polls (I suppose it could have been just a name change). Virtual fingers crossed it works this time!
First, I’ve been being a bit reflective, now that I can no longer “introduce” myself as having one of the best-selling blogs of any kind in the USA, because they aren’t selling blogs any more.
I used to read a lot of books, I’d say certainly 100 a year. Now, start to finish, it’s nowhere near that. It can take me weeks to read a single book (although I never am reading just one at a time). I do sight read books every day, but not for very long.
In part, that’s because I read other things…Flipboard takes up a lot of my reading time, and I read magazines.
By far, most of the book reading I do is via text-to-speech in the car. In a typical week, though, that probably doesn’t amount to 100 pages.
So, here are my first two questions:
I’ve been really, really looking forward to the launch of
Unlike a lot of people, that’s not for Marvel or Star Wars, particularly. I want to see a lot of older Disney movies (especially live action) that I have haven’t seen in a long time. I want to see the old Medfield College comedies with Kurt Russell (I’d love to see them do a new series with Medfield as a STEM school, and Russell could appear in an episode as alumnus Dexter Riley). I even want to see things like The Cat from Outer Space. 🙂
I was disappointed today to hear that Amazon and Disney haven’t worked out licensing for Disney+ to be on the
My guess is that they will work it out…they still have some time. I just can’t see Disney letting all that real estate go away, and Amazon wants that prestige subser (subscription service), of course.
Subsers are certainly part of the Amazon world, including videos. That market has really changed, just in the past five years. Now, there are a bunch of ones that cost under $20. Instead of paying $100 (or more) to a single cable company, people pay around $10 each to several of them.
I just canceled DC Universe. I did enjoy it, but I really got it just for my recovery from my hip replacement surgery in January. I watched a lot of what they had. I didn’t like their flagship show, Titans, although I enjoyed Doom Patrol.
We have a noticeable loss of luxury income with Amazon stopping paid blogs through the Kindle store, and I figured it made sense to drop DCU when I planned to get Disney+.
We are also Prime members (so we get Prime Video), and subscribe to Hulu (at the ad free tier) and Netflix.
I’m curious as to which ones you use…
I’m considering using Patreon as a way for people to support my creative efforts. I’ve looked at it in the past, but now I have more motivation. I haven’t decided yet. I know for sure I’m not planning to move everything behind any kind of paywall! I want to make sure I can always help people who need it without unnecessary hurdles…helping people is my favorite thing.
If it was just a matter of making it easy for someone who chooses to do so, with no obligation on either side, to support me, that would be fine…I’d just open that up and see what happens.
However, in looking at it (just a bit so far), it seems to make the most sense to offer subscribers exclusive content…which would mean producing something additional. No question, that’s a challenge with where we are right now.
First, this:
Now, if I did do Patreon and produced exclusive subscriber material, what would you like to see me do?
My thought is that, if I do it, I’d probably go with ninety-nine cents a month, just like a subscription to ILMK was.
I’m really looking forward to seeing what you have to say on these!
Thanks again to everyone who was a paid subscriber to this blog!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
* I am linking to the same thing at the regular Amazon site, and at AmazonSmile. When you shop at AmazonSmile, half a percent of your purchase price on eligible items goes to a non-profit you choose. It will feel just like shopping at Amazon: you’ll be using your same account. The one thing for you that is different is that you pick a non-profit the first time you go (which you can change whenever you want)…and the good feeling you’ll get. Shop ’til you help!
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I Love My Kindle 