[A2k] Re: [Aebc] Another 'misguided' author makes his 'ridiculous'opinionknown, re: Kindle TTS. Alert the Coalition!

Thu Apr 9 12:48:17 2009

On Thu, Apr 9, 2009 at 12:49 PM, beryl williams
<beryl.williams@gmail.com> wrote:
> Who is Francis Hamit and what does he write?

Mr Hamit is a self-published author, as he states in
<http://brasscannonbooks.net/aboutbcb.htm>

>=C2=A0Personally, I have never come
> across his name or work, and his attitude toward =C2=A0equal text to spee=
ch
> access, is no skin off =C2=A0my nose.

Neither had I and nor off mine, actually. Except that  it is curious
that someone who has experience of producing and selling real
derivative works (see  Mr Hamit's  t-shirts in
<http://www.cafepress.com/brasscannonbook.243599026> and
<http://www.cafepress.com/brasscannonbook.243599031> ) should believe
that the possibility to access a digital text through text-to-speech
constitutes a derivative work. =C2=A7101 Definitions of the US Copyright
Act <http://www4.law.cornell.edu/uscode/17/101.html> says:

"A =E2=80=9Cderivative work=E2=80=9D is a work based upon one or more preex=
isting
works, such as a translation, musical arrangement, dramatization,
fictionalization, motion picture version, sound recording, art
reproduction, abridgment, condensation, or any other form in which a
work may be recast, transformed, or adapted. A work consisting of
editorial revisions, annotations, elaborations, or other modifications
which, as a whole, represent an original work of authorship, is a
=E2=80=9Cderivative work=E2=80=9D. "

Text-to-speech does not produce a separate work, it is just a mode of
accessing the same work - like using a magnifying lense, as Ross Eadie
put it.

> There are so many excellent authors, whose
> work I can, and hope to =C2=A0enjoy,without too much concern about Mr. Ha=
mit's
> "dog in the manger" attitude. However, I believe adamently that authors a=
nd
> publishers must recognise the legitimacy of alternate format access to
> conventional print publication. =C2=A0There is no excuse for denying acce=
ss =C2=A0,
> provided the author/Copyright holder receives equal recompense, regardles=
s
> of how the work is ultimately accessed, =C2=A0now the technology is alrea=
dy being
> widely =C2=A0applied in other communication disciplines.

Err, there I partially disagree with you: if an author wants to
handprint his books with fonts carved in potatoes and then distribute
the product by attaching it to small balloons, s/he should be free to
do so. What an author or publisher shouldn't do is spread
disinformation misrepresenting a reading mode as a derivative work.

> Has anyone personal experience with the Open Library at: openlibrary.org =
=C2=A0It
> appears to be another resource for Etext material, though I am uncertain =
as
> to how accessible it is for screen reading software or downloading.
> Regards,

I find the openlibrary.org site a bit awkward to use, but that's my
learning curve, not a screenreading issue. But as to the works
themselves, no, a screenreader would not make sense of them, because
they are made of pictures of text: the real simple text version (that
is used by the search engine for instance) is hidden.

Fortunately, though,  the texts at openlibrary.org  I have seen so far
are actually embedded from the Internet Archive www.archive.org . So
if you look up the original page for the text there, you will usually
also find a .txt or .pdf version that can be downloaded and will work
with a screenreader.

Otherwise, there is the  work-around  suggested by Gabriele Ghirlanda
about a similar presentation using text images, which I quoted in
<http://etcjournal.wordpress.com/2009/01/22/unhide-that-hidden-text-please/=
>:

"Right-clic, copy image, paste in OpenOffice; export as PDF; then I
put the PDf through Abbyy Fine Reader. [an optical character
recognition software]."

But with some image scans of older books (say a Shakespeare folio),
OCR would be difficult.

Another interesting collection I've just chanced upon today is
Scientific Commons: see <http://en.scientificcommons.org/about>. The
one text I've downloaded so far (from
<http://de.scientificcommons.org/35575080>) is a straightforward,
unprotected PDF that would work fine with a screenreader, I believe.

Best

Claude

>
> beryl.Original Message -----
> From: "Ross Eadie" <eeadie@mts.net>
> To: "'Robert Martinengo'" <accessible.text@gmail.com>; "'AEBC sponsered
> mailing list'" <aebc@blindcanadians.ca>; <a2k@lists.essential.org>;
> "'ACCESSINFO'" <ACCESSINFO-L@listserv.lac-bac.gc.ca>
> Sent: Thursday, April 09, 2009 6:53 AM
> Subject: Re: [Aebc] Another 'misguided' author makes his
> 'ridiculous'opinionknown, re: Kindle TTS. Alert the Coalition!
>
>
>>
>> The following was my reply to this same message posted to the National
>> Library list server:
>>
>>
>> Francis Hamit will need to get a good lawyer when the text to speech
>> version
>> of the work is produced. =C2=A0Text to speech licensing does not allow
>> commercial
>> benefits with its voice synthesis from what =C2=A0I know. =C2=A0The auth=
or will have
>> to pay for the right I believe. =C2=A0The author can take me to court fo=
r using
>> text to speech on the book. =C2=A0While the author is at it, the author =
can
>> take
>> all the people who use a magnifying glass to read the book in print.
>>
>>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: aebc-bounces@blindcanadians.ca
>> [mailto:aebc-bounces@blindcanadians.ca]
>> On Behalf Of Robert Martinengo
>> Sent: Wednesday, April 08, 2009 10:57 AM
>> To: AEBC sponsered mailing list; a2k@lists.essential.org; ACCESSINFO
>> Subject: [Aebc] Another 'misguided' author makes his 'ridiculous'
>> opinionknown, re: Kindle TTS. Alert the Coalition!
>>
>> http://brasscannonbooks.net/press.htm
>>
>> Keeping Kindle 2 quiet
>>
>> Re: "Tell me an e-story," editorial, March 4
>>
>> The Times' editorial misses the point of the dispute about the
>> text-to-speech function on the Kindle 2. Authors and other creators have
>> the
>> right to copy, distribute, perform, display and create derivative works =
--
>> including text-to-speech e-books -- from the original content they creat=
e.
>> With very limited exceptions, these rights can be transferred only by
>> written contract.
>>
>> It is the author who decides whether the text-to-speech function on the
>> Kindle 2 can be applied to his or her work. Not Amazon.com, not the
>> customer, and certainly not all of those people who find the law
>> inconvenient or tiresome.
>>
>> The current awkwardness of the technology is irrelevant. Better voice
>> systems are already present on phone systems. It is only a matter of tim=
e
>> before they become part of text-to-speech applications on e-books.
>>
>> My novel, "The Shenandoah Spy," is available on Kindle, but I have not
>> authorized text-to-speech distribution, nor will I any time soon. I have
>> been publishing e-books since 2004, but I do not think of it as more tha=
n
>> a
>> minor niche market. That may change in the future, and I might be inspir=
ed
>> to bundle audio rights with e-book rights if the sales justify it. But
>> that
>> is my choice, not yours.
>>
>> Francis Hamit
>> Frazier Park
>>
>> To unsubscribe from the list, send an email to:
>>
>> aebc-unsubscribe@blindcanadians.ca
>>
>> Leave the body and subject fields blank. =C2=A0You will receive a messag=
e back
>> asking you to confirm this action. =C2=A0Simply reply to the message lea=
ving
>> the
>> body and subject of the message in tact.
>>
>>
>> This mailing list is sponsored by The Alliance for Equality of Blind
>> Canadians For More Information Please call 1 800 561 4774 Or visit our w=
eb
>> site at www.BlindCanadians.ca
>>
>> Disclaimer Neither the AEBC or this list moderator will be held
>> responsible
>> for material posted on this list. ''If you say it, then you are
>> responsible
>> for it.''
>> Messages are posted as they were intended by the author!
>>
>>
>> To unsubscribe from the list, send an email to:
>>
>> aebc-unsubscribe@blindcanadians.ca
>>
>> Leave the body and subject fields blank. =C2=A0You will receive a messag=
e back
>> asking you to confirm this action. =C2=A0Simply reply to the message lea=
ving
>> the body and subject of the message in tact.
>>
>>
>> This mailing list is sponsored by The Alliance for Equality of Blind
>> Canadians For More Information Please call 1 800 561 4774 Or visit our w=
eb
>> site at www.BlindCanadians.ca
>>
>> Disclaimer Neither the AEBC or this list moderator will be held
>> responsible for material posted on this list. ''If you say it, then you
>> are responsible for it.''
>> Messages are posted as they were intended by the author!
>>
>
> _______________________________________________
> A2k mailing list
> A2k@lists.essential.org
> http://lists.essential.org/mailman/listinfo/a2k
>

--
Claude Almansi