DMCA read-aloud exception almost dropped

[wallcraft]

Today's Rulemaking on Anticircumvention includes the read-aloud exception:

(6) Literary works distributed in ebook format when all existing ebook editions of the work (including digital text editions made available by authorized entities) contain access controls that prevent the enabling either of the book’s read-aloud function or of screen readers that render the text into a specialized format.

See Disabling text-to-speech (TTS) triggers DMCA exemption: YOU ARE ALLOWED TO REMOVE DRM for a discussion that started with the 2006 exception.

However, the Recommendation of the Register of Copyrights is also available on the above rulemaking page as a PDF. It only recommends five of the six exceptions, with "read aloud" not recommended. From pages 259-260:

As noted above, three years ago the proponents of the existing ebook class submitted a sample of five titles, two of which turned out to be inaccessible. The Register characterized that showing as “minimal” and “borderline,” and advised that in future rulemakings proponents would be “well advised to review a larger, more representative sample of titles and ascertain the availability and accessibility of those titles in all ebook formats.”

In the current proceeding, proponents again came forward with a sample of five titles, only one of which turned out to be inaccessible. The proponents’ unwillingness or inability to survey a more substantial number of book titles and to determine whether the titles they presented were accessible in any format is inexplicable. As a result, although (as her past recommendations have demonstrated) the Register would be favorably disposed to recommend designation of the class if sufficient facts were placed in the record, she has no choice but to recommend that the Librarian decline to designate this proposed class.

The Librarian of Congress included the exception anyway, but it is clear that in three years time a better case will likely need to be made. There is a good case today for this exception, which a survey of Kindle titles would no doubt demonstrate.