2 posts and columns on Roy Blount Jr.

Shut Up, Kindle

in News on February 27, 2009 at 4:55 pm PT

Rather than argue with the Authors Guild over the text-to-speech feature of its new Kindle 2 e-book reader, Amazon is modifying the device’s software to make it optional. Authors and publishers will now be able to decide if they want the function enabled or not on titles for which they own the rights.
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Authors Guild President: What, Then, of the Playing and Talking Machines?

in News on February 25, 2009 at 12:00 pm PT

The idea of derivative rights and royalties for text-to-speech “audiobooks” like those provided by Amazon’s Kindle 2 might seem ludicrous now, but will that be the case in a few years when the device’s grating text-to-speech voice has been inevitably humanized? A reasonable question, and one that Roy Blount Jr., president of the Authors Guild, poses in an Op Ed in the New York Times today.
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