Authors’ audio rights and the accelerating changes in technology

Roy Blount complains in today’s New York Times that the new Amazon Kindle 2 poses a problem for authors:  “Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights.” He notes “that sort of technology is improving all the time.  He is writing as ” president of the Authors Guild, whose mission is to sustain book-writing as a viable occupation.

I’ve said it again and again.  With changes in technology, we’re going to have to change both our laws and our business models.  I don’t blame Blount for feeling ripped off by the Kindle’s ability to convert text to speech without authors earning any royalties for audio rights, but these problems are just going to arise again and again.  The old business models and the old laws were based on different material conditions.  The material conditions change, and the business models and the laws must change too.