Dead to Rights UPDATED

Starting my day reading 2 stories of rights going down the dumper. And, along with that, an artist's ability to be be compensated.

Amazon's new Kindle 2, which is that electronic tablet wherein one may download books -- many books -- may not pay an author for audio rights. Kindle DOES pay authors when a consumer downloads a book.

"But there’s another thing about Kindle 2 — its heavily marketed text-to-speech function. Kindle 2 can read books aloud. And Kindle 2 is not paying anyone for audio rights," writes Roy Blount in the NY Times.

Musician Richard Gibbs, profiled in the Christian Science Monitor, who has seen the trafficking of free, illegal downloads escalate in the past 10 years, suggests a day of sharing for all:

"Richard Gibbs argues that holding an international 'Day of Sharing' would be a radical gesture on behalf of the beleaguered music industry.

"How would it work? 'Order your favorite meal, eat it, and walk out,' he cites as an example. 'Test drive a car and simply keep driving. Fill your pockets with candy from the 7-Eleven.'"

In the future, you'll get your music and cartoons and movies for free, but it'll be created on the side, part-time; by people who have to work in another industry. And, to quote my pal Brian Fies, there won't be anything good left to steal.

Hat tip to Dad for the CSM link. Thanks, Dad!

UPDATE: a bright spot from today's NY Times: iPhone users are willing to spend money in ways that Web users are not by Saul Hansell.