Should I discourage my friend from buying a Kindle?

No, but it does pose an ethical dilemma.

A friend of mine is seriously considering buying a Kindle for her  
learning-impaired adult son. He can read with difficulty, and she's  
found that using a PC with text-to-speech, so that he hears the  
speech at the same time as he reads the words, not only helps him to  
read, but is noticeably improving his reading skill generally.

Naturally, she believes, as anyone would, that the Kindle simply "is  
able to read aloud." After all, text-to-speech is just a technical  
capability. If it can read one book aloud, it _can_ read _any_ book  
aloud.

Should I disillusion her, by telling her, first, that publishers can  
artificially deny users that capability, on a title-by-title basis?

Should I disillusion her further by telling her that publishers  
reportedly have the capability of _revoking_ that capability on a  
title that _has already been purchased,_ and that Random House has  
already done so?

No, because hopefully the number of titles involved is so small that  
with luck she'll never even notice it... and hopefully reader  
backlash, and readers attempting to return products to Amazon, will  
put an end to this madness. If a mechanical text-to-speech capability  
is an audiobook, then a Hammond organ is a symphony orchestra.

What next?

--DVD players that shut down movie playback if they detect more than  
four people in the room?

--Digital cameras that superimpose black "censored" rectangles across  
the image of anyone wearing a Mickey Mouse sweatshirt?

--Jail time for people caught singing "Happy BIrthday To You," thus  
caught in posession an unauthorized copy in their brain?


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