Good e-Reader - Wednesday, January 15, 2020 at 3:00 PM
Audible has reached a settlement with major publishers for Captions program
Audible Captions was a program that was announced last summer. The system would
basically use the existing app and playback an audiobook, while it would be
transcribed into text. This is similar to Youtube playing back a video and
captions being turned on, so you don’t have to have the volume playing, to
understand what is going on. As soon as Audible announced it, major publishers
filed a lawsuit in court, trying to block it. They said it basically devalued
audiobooks AND ebooks, they would lose money and wanted to put the kibosh on
it. After months of discovery and arguing, it looks like the two sides have
reached a settlement.
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 have resolved
their disputes” and expected to submit the settlement documents by Jan. 21. No
other details were provided.
Audible is the dominant player in the booming audio market. In 2018, audiobooks
accounted for $940 million of sales in the US alone, up 24.5% on the previous
year, while sales in the UK increased 43% to £69m.
Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing
about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been
picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CBC, CNET,
Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times.
https://goodereader.com/blog/audiobooks/audible-has-reached-a-settlement-with-major-publishers-for-captions-program
David Goldfield
Assistive Technology Specialist
Feel free to visit my Web site
WWW.DavidGoldfield.info
