Publishers are "not amused" about Amazon’s upcoming Audible Captions feature

guest · Jul 20, 2019

Publishers are "not amused" about Amazon’s upcoming Audible Captions feature
Some are asking for their books to be withheld from the feature
July 19, 2019
https://www.theverge.com/2019/7/19/...ions-feature-audiobook-book-publishers-rights

Earlier this week, Audible revealed that it was working on a new feature for its audiobook app: Audible Captions, which will use machine learning to transcribe an audio recording for listeners, allowing them to read along with the narrator.

On its face, the idea seems useful, much in the same way that I turn on subtitles for things that I’m watching on TV, but publishers have some reason to be concerned: it’s possible that fewer people will buy distinct e-book or physical books if they can simply pick up an Audible audiobook and get the text for free, too.

Penguin Random House, one of the world’s five biggest publishers, told The Verge that “we have reached out to Audible to express our strong copyright concerns with their recently announced Captions program, which is not authorized by our business terms,” and that it expects the company to exclude its titles from the captions feature.
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DongWon Song, an agent from the Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, tells The Verge "[...] they’re not given any text rights, they’re not given any electronic rights, they’re just given the right to distribute an audio edition.”

“I hear what they’re saying on one level, but on another level, they are reproducing the full text of the book in print form. Full stop. It’s not an excerpt, it’s not a fair use argument, they’re taking the entire text and reproducing that on your phone or on your device.”
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guest · Aug 23, 2019

Top U.S. publishers sue Amazon's Audible for copyright infringement
August 23, 2019
https://www.reuters.com/article/us-...ible-for-copyright-infringement-idUSKCN1VD1ZY

Amazon.com Inc’s (AMZN.O) Audible was sued by some of the top U.S. publishers for copyright infringement on Friday, aiming to block a planned rollout of a feature called ‘Audible Captions’ that shows the text on screen as a book is narrated.
The lawsuit was filed by seven members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), including HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan Publishers.

“Essentially Audible wants to provide the text as well as the sound of books without the authorization of copyright holders, despite only having the right to sell audiobooks,” AAP said in a statement.
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guest · Sep 16, 2019

Amazon fires back at book publishers, says captions are fair use
"Audible Captions is not a book of any kind," Audible writes in court filing
September 16, 2019
https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy...t-book-publishers-says-captions-are-fair-use/

Amazon's Audible unit is fighting back against a lawsuit by seven major publishers that claimed Audible's new automatic caption feature violates their copyrights. In a legal filing last Thursday, Audible argued that the technology is protected by fair use.

"Audible Captions is not a book of any kind, much less a replacement for paper books, e-books, or cross-forma products," Audible argues in its latest filing.
Audible argues that the technology has substantial public benefits. It can help people with learning disabilities or limited hearing to better understand audiobooks. It can aid people learning a new language
Audible argues its technology is fair use
Audible says its software sends the audio file to Amazon's servers for transcription, then stores the full transcript on the user's device. However, Audible takes precautions to make sure the user can only view a few words of the transcript at a time—and only synchronized to the audiobook. These limitations bolster Audible's fair-use case because the transcript is a poor substitute for an e-book if it can only be viewed at the speed the audio file plays.
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guest · Jan 16, 2020

Audible settles copyright lawsuit with publishers over audiobook captions
January 15, 2020
https://www.theguardian.com/books/2020/jan/15/audible-settles-copyright-lawsuit-publishers-captions

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.

In court, lawyers for the publishers said Audible had no right to generate and distribute text, while lawyers for Audible argued that it was not the equivalent of reading. Publisher’s Weekly reported that judge Valerie Caproni interjected: “What do you mean it’s not a reading experience? It’s words.”
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 21 January. No other details were provided.
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Publishers are "not amused" about Amazon’s upcoming Audible Captions feature

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