xzm - Slashdot User

Author's Guild Says Kindle's Text-To-Speech Software Illegal 683

Posted by CmdrTaco on Wednesday February 11, 2009 @11:15AM from the you-gotta-be-kidding-me dept.

Mike writes "The Author's Guild claims that the new Kindle's text-to-speech software is illegal, stating that 'They don't have the right to read a book out loud,' said Paul Aiken, executive director of the Authors Guild. 'That's an audio right, which is derivative under copyright law.' Forget for a moment that text-to-speech doesn't copy an existing work. And forget the odd notion that the artificial enunciation of plain text is equivalent to a person's nuanced and emotive reading. The Guild's claim is that even to read out loud is a production akin to an illegal copy, or a public performance."

Comment Re:Proving God sucks (Score 1) 457

by xzm on Friday November 07, 2008 @01:20AM (#25672073) Attached to: LHC Forces Bookmaker To Lower Odds On the Existence of God

God may only be just an ordinary person in HIS own universe, but is omnipotent in OUR universe. Let's say I created a virtual universe running inside a computer with virtual beings in it (think NPCs in an RPG game). That makes me the creator of this virtual universe and makes me the God of those virtual beings. They are argueing all day if the god can create a rock so heavy that he can not lift it. Of course I can create a rock as heavy as I want in the virtual universe. But in my own universe, nope... So if there's a god, he may just be an ordinary being in his own universe.

Lessons from the Browser Wars 212

Posted by Zonk on Sunday April 16, 2006 @03:29AM from the dodge-the-incoming-bugs dept.

An anonymous reader writes to mention a piece on the Harvard Business School site talking about Lessons from the Browser Wars; specifically, what can be learned about first-mover advantages and the upsurge in Firefox use? From the article: "As a tool for exploring how standards are set when new technologies hit the market, the browser wars exhibit many features we like to study: competition between two viable alternatives, rapidly improving technologies, the ability of firms to use strategic levers such as market power and channels of distribution, growth in demand leading to diffusion of the new technology through the population, and uncertainty. Thus, this is one example from which we can generalize lessons regarding the outcome of diffusion of innovation into a market."

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