[A2k] Re: [Upd-discuss] Fwd: Blind Groups Sue ASU flor KindleUse

[Jeffrey A. Williams]

Frederico and all,

  Both arguments and therefore points of view are correct and ethical
here.  Kindle is part of the problem and DRM is the framework for
Kindle becoming a problem.  Still neither perspective should not be
argued, instead both should be.  The contrived denigration or restriction
of the Blind or sight impaired intentionally is to a degree lessor or greater,
to everyone.  Such should always be opposed and opposed strongly!

  This said, our members as a short term solution are boycotting all
Amazon products and services accordingly, and some of our members
have short sold their stock holdings in Amazon as a result.  This will
continue until or unless Amazon changes the error in it's ways.

Federico Heinz wrote:

> On 30/06/2009, Norbert Bollow wrote:
> > Federico, don't you agree that the freedom of access to knowledge is
> > threatened by the risk that through the "Kindle", Amazon might succeed
> > in creating for itself effectively a gatekeeper role with regard to
> > access to knowledge?
>
> Not really. The risk of a Kindle monopoly doesn't seem all that high to me.
> Everything with a screen is being repurposed as a reader nowadays. The problem
> is not the Kindle, it's DRM, especially under DMCA-like conditions.
>
> > [...] Such an alliance will succeed in turning the tide of international law
> > if and only if we succeed in building relationships of collaboration, trust
> > and mutual support between the diverse interest groups.
>
> And in order to do that, each and every one of the members of that alliance
> must fight for the whole thing, and not just for their specific portion. This
> means, always communicate that the problem is "access to knowledge" and that
> "access to knowledge for the {blind, poor, illiterate, dark-haired}" is just an
> illustrative example of the general damage being done.
>
> Those universities' plans with the DRM'ed books read like they got the idea
> from Richard's "Right to Read". It affects blind students, it is true. But it
> also affects all students.
>
> What's worse, we can't count on textbook publishers acting stupidly *all* of
> the time. At some point, one or more of them is bound to figure out that the
> lock on the Kindle's text-to-speech feature is a completely boneheaded idea,
> particularly for books which are not likely candidates for audiobooks (say,
> Calculus 101), and allow the feature for them. As a result, those universities
> will be perceived as being concerned with the rights of the visually impaired,
> and doing the right thing for them, when in fact they will be doing the wrong
> thing for everyone.
>
>         Fede
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Regards,

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