I guess removing this record might still be “circumvention” as far as the DMCA is concerned, but Amazon really has not tried very hard to enforce TTS disabling. There is also an explicit anti-circumvention exemption for TTS in ebooks, but it is so poorly written that it is difficult to tell if it applies to Kindle ebooks.

However, its not always handy to look at the book, or to bother with turning pages. Every time I jump in the car I bring my Kindle along. It shortens an otherwise long commute as I listen to the book. When I get to my destination I go back to text mode and pick up from where I left off. When I go to the gymn, I place the Kindle on my exercise bike. Here I keep the volume low, but the read aloud feature also automatically turns pages for me, albeit a bit slower than I’d prefer.

In its way, this is like an extension of the whispersynch feature. It lets me ‘read’ the book in different formats as I move from place to place.

No, I won’t buy a book that has TTS disabled. If you only sell crippled copies of your work you will reduce sales. I wonder if piracy increases for those books that are not available in consumer-friendly formats?

p.s. David, did you see the interview from the Sony CEO (TechOn via engadget)? The engadget headline read:
Sony CEO Howard Stringer on music: “If we had gone with open technology from the start, I think we probably would have beaten Apple”
http://www.engadget.com/2009/05/11/sony-ceo-howard-stringer-if-we-had-gone-with-open-technology-f/

Amazon is its own DRM provider, and can in principle check your Kindle to make sure the ebook has been deleted. So a liberal refund policy may be easier for them, but it is still praise worthy.

If you book does not have DRM (it probably does) then you can use Calibre to reformat it to a Sony format. Calibre is a free, open-source product here: http://calibre.kovidgoyal.net/download

I cannot use the Sony store because it is not open to Mac users. They have lost several sales as a result, but then that is their choice whether to have Mac users as customers or not. Meanwhile try opening the Sony book in desktop Stanza and converting it to whatever your touch can read. If it is protected with DRM that will not work, however.

Their site has information that their books are formatted for Sony Reader. I did a Google search for a certain book. The search took me to a page devoid of such information, the page for that book. After buying the book I discovered that I can only read it with Adobe software on my computer but cannot read it on my Touch with Stanza. I wrote to Waterhouse asking for a refund and stating that I’d remove all traces of the book from my hard drive, which I would. We exchanged polite emails and now I am being ignored. I dislike reading from my computer. My book is imprisoned in my computer.

I know this is off topic. Sorry. With Amazon’s control tactics I simply roll my eyes.