Just a few days after its launch on Feb. 9, Amazon’s ebook reader Kindle 2 was surrounded by a controversy that its text-to-speech function violates copyright.

Text-to-speech option for content is definitely one of the most catching features of the Kindle 2, but Amazon was apparently in no mood to fight the publishing industry on the issue – whether the device’s text-to-speech option is violation of copyright. Thus, Amazon decided to modify its Kindle 2 to let authors and publishers decide – title by title – whether to enable the function or not.

In a press conference on Friday, Amazon announced that it has decided to modify its electronic book reader Kindle 2 to allow authors and publishers to decide whether to turn on the device’s text-to-speech function, which changes the written text to human speech.

The press conference began with Amazon stating, "Kindle 2's experimental text-to-speech feature is legal; no copy is made, no derivative work is created, and no performance is being given."

Amazon said, "We strongly believe many rights holders will be more comfortable with the text-to-speech feature if they are in the driver's seat."

Fred von Lohmann, senior attorney at the Electronic Frontier Foundation, stated that it was good that “Amazon decided to allow copyright owners to make the decisions themselves whether to use the feature," instead of taking the stance that the company didn't believe text-to-speech technology violated copyright.

Amazon faced a lot of criticism for the device’s text-to-speech option. The president of the Author's Guild, Roy Blount Jr. criticized Amazon harshly for the Kindle 2’s text-to-speech option, in an editorial titled "The Kindle Swindle" that appeared in the New York Times Wednesday.