"Kindle me a Story"

     I never really understood the Kindle.  I mean its great and everything, sure, but what about reading a book?  There’s something magical about flipping through pages and holding the words between the palms of your hand.  Something more tangible about it.  It’s almost like staring at a screen rather then paper lack a bit of authenticity.  Paper reading seems to be going out of style.  I mean look at the newspaper.  People aren’t buying it because they can read it online through wonderful agate news sites.  The newspaper will never go completely out of style I don’t think; I mean its famous right?  I mean yah the kindle may save paper but I hope we aren’t entering an age where written text will be left behind in some sort of sacred dust.

     The first time I heard a book on tape I thought I was going to loose it.  I felt like it was equivalent to watching a movie.  I mean reading is brain exercise, that’s why some people just hate it.  I think reading is a really personal experience because what I get out of a book will be something totally different than what you get from reading the same book.   I’ve always felt this way so I really felt called to research more about the lawsuit over the Amazon Kindle 2.  According to an article, written by Jay Rivera, the Authors Guild put up quite the fight against voice recorded book “performances” claiming that they went against the copy right laws.  The Author’s Guild, partially the director Paul Aiken, claims that the voice recordings are “derivative works” which breaks the copyright laws.  Derivative works are basically re-makes of the original concept.  He claims “that allowing Kindle to use the audio feature without paying the copyright holders would be a legal violation.”  I get that but I mean I think this whole thing is much more over money than it is about protecting the authenticity of books.

     I think it’s a bit extreme to create lawsuits over such broad things like this.  I mean everyone has there own personal opinion which is why there are so many copy right lawsuits and just plain old law suits in general.  If it were up to me I would pass a law that would make it possible for each author to personally make up their own mind in regard to their original works.  If I were an author I wouldn’t want my book to become a book on tape because I would, personally, feel that it would be a derivative work of my original book.  Some books are meant for personal interpretation that you can’t gain from listening to a robotic voice over.  Some books you can though.  I get both points of view on the matter but I’ve decided that you can’t win when it comes to politics!  At the end of the day is it worth the legal battle… I don't know…