Amazon Backtracks on Kindle Voice Feature

"The move comes as a response to criticism of the feature from portions of the publishing industry. Last month, the Authors Guild, a writer advocacy group, claimed that "Read to Me" constitutes a new literature format that allows Amazon to skirt rules around licensing book formats. E-books and audiobooks, for instance, are both licensed for compensation purposes.

"But the Guild said that the text-to-speech capability of the Kindle 2 makes for a new format that is not covered under existing agreements.

"Amazon said that it aims to avoid the problem by giving copyright holders the opportunity to specify whether their e-books would support the feature. The company said it's now revamping its publishing system to enable writers, authors and publishers to disable the technology on a case-by-case basis."

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