Audible Settles Copyright Lawsuit With Publishers Over Audiobook Captions (theguardian.com) 7
After months of back and forth, Audible has settled in a copyright lawsuit with major publishers over its plan to introduce captions to their recordings, a proposal that the publishing houses argued was simply reading. The Guardian reports: In July, the audiobook company owned by Amazon announced Captions, an additional function for the existing app that would allow customers to read the text as it was read, as well as looking up words and translating them. Captions had been slated to launch in September 2019. But while Audible maintained that Captions "does not replicate or replace the print or ebook reading experience" and said it worked within the framework of copyright law, the publishers were unconvinced after seeing demonstrations.
Seven publishers, including the "Big Five" -- Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan -- sued Audible in August, a move that was also backed by bodies representing authors and agents. "Audible Captions takes publishers' proprietary audiobooks, converts the narration into unauthorized text, and distributes the entire text of these 'new' digital books to Audible's customers," said the lawsuit. [...] In a letter filed this week in federal court in New York, Audible's attorneys, writing on behalf of both sides, announced that the parties had resolved their disputes and expected to submit the settlement documents by January 21. No other details were provided.
Seven publishers, including the "Big Five" -- Penguin Random House, Hachette, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins and Macmillan -- sued Audible in August, a move that was also backed by bodies representing authors and agents. "Audible Captions takes publishers' proprietary audiobooks, converts the narration into unauthorized text, and distributes the entire text of these 'new' digital books to Audible's customers," said the lawsuit. [...] In a letter filed this week in federal court in New York, Audible's attorneys, writing on behalf of both sides, announced that the parties had resolved their disputes and expected to submit the settlement documents by January 21. No other details were provided.
Audio books for the hearing impaired (Score:3)
Who thought it was a good idea to take a text format, convert it into an audio format, & then add text to it again. Who would that be for? Maybe for someone who wanted to practise their understanding of grapheme-phoneme correspondences, AKA shadow reading? But that's already catered for with books+CDs/MP3s.
I struggling to think of a practical, feasible use-case scenario. Anyone?
Re:Audio books for the hearing impaired (Score:5, Insightful)
I struggling to think of a practical, feasible use-case scenario. Anyone?
I can see it being useful situationally, especially if they're tying X-ray features into it. As they mentioned, you can use it to look stuff up. The other reason to allow for it would be in families with deaf family members. What if you want to read along as your kid is listening to the book, or have your kid read along as you listen? Just having the book open at the same time isn't going to cut it, not to mention having to pay for the same book twice, as it wouldn't keep it in sync.
Audiobooks cost more than the print copy. It includes all the same content, and more with the narrator's voice(s). The only reason for publishers to prevent this, unsurprisingly, is to milk more money out of the customers.
Re: (Score:2)
Could you cite a study or two to support your opinion?
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I will often turn on captions when I'm watching something on Netflix to go back and read what that mumbling person was saying.
Maybe you're learning to read, and having someone speak out the words is helpful.
Maybe don't worry about finding a problem that you don't currently have?
I guess I kind of get where you're coming from, because I've often seen tools on sale on Amazon, and I've wondered what you actually do with it. The thing is, when I find out, I don't worry about why you would want to do that.
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You're listening to an audio book, you hear a word that is garbled, oddly pronounced, or that you're utterly unfamiliar with, and you want to confirm what word it is, and look it up?
learning? (Score:2)