Audible Captions | Copyright Infringement or Forward Thinking? (2019)

About this video

(Summarized from the Dutch caption track.) Dale discusses Audible Captions, a proposed Audible feature that would let listeners download an audiobook to a device and turn on machine-generated captions that Audible puts together for that specific audiobook, planned around early September 2019. He says the idea immediately raises rights issues, especially for authors publishing on the platform: sharing a YouTube video is one thing, but an audiobook is not necessarily something the rights holder licensed for reading. He reports pushback from the Association of American Publishers, which filed on behalf of seven companies including the Big 5, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon and Schuster. He then works through further problems: whether rights holders would be compensated for the captions, quality control — noting captions can contain errors and should not be played around with — and why a customer would buy the e-book or print book if captions turn listening into reading. Against that, he notes Audible’s stated position in coverage of the dispute: disagreement with the publishers’ claims, support for working with publishers and members, and an argument that the innovation has educational and accessibility benefits for parents, teachers, and others. He compares the situation to captions on YouTube changing expectations, while stressing that audiobooks were not meant for reading, and asks viewers whether they see the feature as copyright infringement or forward thinking.

Key takeaways

• Audible Captions would add downloadable, machine-generated captions to a specific audiobook on a listener’s device.
• Dale frames the central dispute as a rights issue: an audiobook license does not automatically include the right to present the work as text for reading.
• He reports the Association of American Publishers filed on behalf of seven companies, including the Big 5, HarperCollins Publishers, and Simon and Schuster.
• His open questions are whether rights holders get compensated, who controls caption quality and errors, and whether captions undercut e-book and print sales.
• Audible’s counter-argument, as he presents it, is educational and accessibility benefit and working with publishers — viewers are asked to judge infringement versus forward thinking.

Episode details: published August 26, 2019 · 6:19 long. Summary written by Self Growth Videos from the episode itself. Business results and any income figures mentioned are Dale L. Roberts’s own claims, shared for education — they are not typical or guaranteed.

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