Quote:
Originally Posted by Daithi
Who's "right" is it?
Author/Publisher: Their position seems to be that a book being read by anyone other than the purchaser is a performance. Therefore they retain the "right" to this form of their intelectual property. More to the point, they believe a machine produced by a 3rd party that is sold to the public and that reads their book is conducting a public performance.
Consumer: Their position is that they have the right to read their book outloud, they can also have someone else of their choosing read the book to them, and that this "someone else" can include a machine. The consumer believes this is their right as long as it is for private use.
Amazon: Their position is that copyright laws may favor the the Author/Publisher or it may favor the Consumer, but DMCA laws make both of these positions mute. They believe they are within their right under DMCA to side with the Author/Publisher and disable TTS and there is nothing the consumer can do about it.
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It's not a question of copyright. The Authors/Publishers and Amazon are arguing over the licensing rights to sell the book. Distributors (Amazon, etc) negotiate licenses to sell printed books and audio books separately. This is a contract dispute between the Authors/Publishers and Distributors over whether TTS counts as a sale of a printed book or as a sale of an audio book (which typically has higher licensing costs). It has nothing to do with copyrights or the consumer.