Amazon Learns It Isn’t Easy Being the Kindle’s Keeper

April 8, 2009 at 2:50 pm PT

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Amazon still hasn’t said how many of its Kindle e-book readers have sold. But here’s one true sign of the gadget’s growing popularity: People are protesting it on several fronts.

On Tuesday, a group representing members of the National Federation of the Blind and the American Association of People with Disabilities staged a protest over limitations in the Kindle’s read-aloud feature. Last month, Amazon (AMZN) said it would amend the feature to give publishers and authors the ability restrict it at the request of the Authors Guild, which says voice performances of books require separate contracts. During the protest outside the New York headquarters of Authors Guild, protesters chanted, “Stop the greed, we want to read.”

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Tagged with: Amazon, American Association of People with Disabilities, authors, Authors Guild, e-book, Kindle, National Federation of the Blind, publishers, read-aloud, Reader, voice, Wall Street Journal

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  • http://blog.macb.net Mac Beach

    Like Apple they are telling those who want it more open and those who want it more closed to “fight it out among yourselves.”

    Sounds like it is the Authors guild who will be feeling the heat.

    Also companies who sell VERY expensive reading programs for the PC (they charge a lot because they know it’s mostly being covered by insurance companies or the government).