Friday, February 27, 2009

Amazon Backs Down On Kindle's Text-To-Speech Feature

Seattle-based Amazon.com is backing down after protests from publishers on its text-to-speech feature of its newly released Kindle 2 e-book reader, saying late Friday that it would modify the product to allow rightholders to decide, on a title-by-title basis, whether they want to enable text-to-speech on their books. Amazon said that its text-to-speech feature is legal, saying that "no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given." However, the firm said it is changing the policy because it believes "rightsholders will be more comfortable" if "they are in the driver's seat."