[Missouri-l] FW: [VICUG-L] response back from the authors guild, what do you all think?

Wed Apr 8 07:50:02 CDT 2009

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From: Visually Impaired Computer Users' Group List
[mailto:VICUG-L at LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG] On Behalf Of Harry Brown
Sent: Tuesday, April 07, 2009 11:50 PM
To: VICUG-L at LISTSERV.ICORS.ORG
Subject: [VICUG-L] response back from the authors guild, what do you all
think?

Hi All,

I called the authors guild, and here's what I got back from them.  What do
you all think of this?  Forward what I got back to the folks at the readers
rights coalition, if you've got their email, so they can see this.

Harry, PS, the response to my email is below.

Dear Harry,

Thank you for your phone call today.  We issued the following statement
today in response to the protest:

Authors want everyone to read their books.  That's why the Authors Guild,
and authors generally, are strong advocates for making all books, including
e-books, accessible to everyone.  This is not a new position for us.  For
decades, we've informed new authors that the expected and proper thing to do
is to donate rights so that their works can be  accessible to the blind and
others.  In October, we were praised by the National Federation of the Blind
for the settlement of our lawsuit against Google, which promises "to
revolutionize blind people's access to books," according to the Federation's
press release. 

E-books do not come bundled with audio rights.  So we proposed to the
Federation several weeks ago the only lawful and speedy path to make e-books
accessible to the print disabled on Amazon's Kindle:

1. The first step is to take advantage of a special exception to the
Copyright Act known as the Chafee Amendment, which permits the blind and
others with certified physical print disabilities access to special
versions, including audio versions, of copyrighted books.  Technology makes
this step easy:  certified users of existing Kindles could activate their
devices online to enable access to voice-output versions of all e-books.
This process could be ready to go within weeks.

2. Since step one would help only those with sufficient eyesight to navigate
the current Kindle, we encourage Amazon or another e-book device
manufacturer to make an e-book device with voice output capability that
would be truly blind-accessible, with a Braille keyboard and audible menu
commands.

3. Finally, we need to amend existing book contracts to allow voice-output
access to others, including those with learning disabilities, that don't
qualify for special treatment under the Chafee Amendment.  There's no
getting around the need to amend contracts:  for the past 16 years, standard
publishing contracts with most major trade publishers do not permit
publishers to sell e-books bundled with audio rights.  Fortunately,
publishing contracts are amendable, and can (once terms have been
negotiated) be handled in a systematic fashion.

The Authors Guild will gladly be a forceful advocate for amending contracts
to provide access to voice-output technology to everyone.  We will not,
however, surrender our members' economic rights to Amazon or anyone else.
The leap to digital has been brutal for print media generally, and the
economics of the transition from print to e-books do not look as promising
as many assume.  Authors can't afford to start this transition to digital by
abandoning rights.

Knowing how difficult the road ahead is for the already fragile economics of
authorship, we are particularly troubled at how all this arose, with Amazon
attempting to use authors' audio rights to lengthen its lead in the
fledgling e-book industry.  We could not allow this rights grab to happen.
Audio books are a billion dollar market, the rights for which are packaged
separately from -- and are far more valuable than -- e-book rights.

That said, our support for access by all disabled readers is steadfast, and
we know how to make it happen.  The Federation rightly heralded the
settlement in Authors Guild v. Google.  That class-action settlement
represents a quantum leap in accessibility to books for the disabled.  It
will, if approved, make far more books than ever before, potentially tens of
millions of out-of-print books, accessible to not only the blind, but to
people with any type of print disability.

Through the Google settlement, we have a solution for out-of-print book
accessibility.  We're confident we can arrive at a solution for in-print
books as well.  

Today's protest is unfortunate and unnecessary.  We stand by our offer,
first made to the Federation's lawyer a month ago and repeated several times
since, to negotiate in good faith to reach a solution for making in-print
e-books accessible to everyone.  We extend that same offer to any group
representing the disabled.

---------------

Feel free to contact the office if you have any questions or would like
further information.

The Authors Guild
31 East 32nd St., 7th Floor
New York, NY 10016
212-563-5904; fax: 212-564-5363

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