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> I'm very surprised they make this a feature for authors, rather than a feature for users. Licensing. Audiobooks are a different license from ebooks, and tryi
by dmitriid 4y ago
> I'm very surprised they make this a feature for authors, rather than a feature for users.
Licensing. Audiobooks are a different license from ebooks, and trying to narrate an audiobook will infringe the licensing terms.
- londons_explore 4y agoApple is big enough they could just tell authors "here is our new narration feature for users. If you don't like it, pull your books off our platform.". No author is going to win a twitter flame war because they don't want a 'speak it out loud' button provided by apple on their ebooks. Besides - all ebooks on Apple platforms already support this via: Settings → General → Accessibility → VoiceOver → ON turns on the VoiceOver feature This is just a higher quality version of the same.
- hnbad 4y agoYour view is a bit myopic as you seem to assume Apple can just throw its weight at it and that winning in the US market would be the same as winning globally. Books are one of the oldest media around and as a consequence most jurisdictions have fairly extensive and specific laws around them and their authors' and publishers' rights. In many cases copyright itself is ultimately based on laws created to deal with authors and publishers. Infamously, Amazon tried to snub book pricing laws and lost. Google got into hot water with newspaper publishers because its news app violated laws originally written for citing physical newspapers. This is like suggesting Spotify just ignore the RIAA or Netflix should just stream all content in all countries, licensing restrictions be damned.
- 33955985 4y agoApple is big enough to have the EU dictate what port to ship their phones with, too. The regulatory landscape requires careful navigating.
- Veen 4y agoIt’s not big enough to to tell the major publishers that. Especially if it wants mainstream titles on its relatively small ebook platform.
- dmitriid 4y ago> Apple is big enough they could just tell authors "here is our new narration feature for users. If you don't like it, pull your books off our platform.". You assume that it is authors who sell books on Apple platform (or on any platform). Let me introduce you to a couple of chunky boys: - Penguin Random House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Random_House https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Penguin_Random_House - HarperCollins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarperCollins https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HarperCollins - Simon & Schuster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%26_Schuster https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simon_%26_Schuster
- rockemsockem 4y agoApple would absolutely get sued by publishers, but, I don't think that Apple providing a high quality narration tool with their phone which can be used on any ebook would infringe licensing terms. It's not like they'd be saying "Here is this specific title for you to read/buy/rent", they'd be releasing a tool with the power to do that.
- dmitriid 4y ago> I don't think that Apple providing a high quality narration tool with their phone which can be used on any ebook would infringe licensing terms. Oh, it definitely would. This produces a derivative work besides anything else. > It's not like they'd be saying "Here is this specific title for you to read/buy/rent", they'd be releasing a tool with the power to do that. That's exactly what they will be doing from the point of view of copyright law.
- rockemsockem 4y agoCitation needed? TTS tools exist on all computing platforms these days. The difference with this recent release is just that it sounds better. Apple would not be creating a derivative work, whoever uses it would be. EDIT: It has occurred to me that they may have signed a deal as part of Apple Books that says they won't release tools of this nature. I don't know if that is the case, but that isn't the scenario I'm talking about. Just the case where there is a tool that can do high quality TTS. I do not believe that violates any copyright since it's a tool.