Top publishers sue Audible for copyright infringement

Some of the country’s top publishers are suing Audible, citing copyright infringement as they ask a federal judge to enjoin the audiobook producerdistributor’s planned use of captions for an educationdriven program.

The socalled “Big Five” of publishing — Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, HarperCollins Publishing and Macmillan — are among the plaintiffs in the suit filed Friday in U.S. District Court for the Southern District of New York. The legal action comes in response to “Audible Captions,” which Audible announced in July and indicated would be formerly launched as students return this fall, with titles including “Catch22,” “The Hunger Games” and “The Hate U Give.”

“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,” the lawsuit reads. “Audible’s actions — taking copyrighted works and repurposing them for its own benefit without permission — are the kind of quintessential infringement that the Copyright Act directly forbids.”

Audible, which is owned by Amzon.com and is the dominanrt producer in the throving audiobook market, did not immediately respond to a request for comment.

Maria Pallante, who heads the Association of American Publishers, told The Associated Press in a recent interview that repeated efforts to communicate with Audible — including ceaseanddesist letters — had failed to produce any changes.

said in a statement that Audible had showed “deliberate disregard of authors, publishers, and copyright law.” Audible, owned by Amazon.com, is the dominant producer in the thriving audiobook market.