4 ms·

Agreed, on the surface (and given current legislation/IP legal climate). One thing that may also come into play - what about accessibility and the Americans wi

Agreed, on the surface (and given current legislation/IP legal climate). One thing that may also come into play - what about accessibility and the Americans with Disabilities Act? In this age of "slippery slopes be damned," I wouldn't necessarily be surprised to see someone file suit alleging that these sort of licenses - that limit scope only to audio - as a whole are infringing upon their rights under the ADA. (Whether it would stand up or not is another question - anyone can file suit for anything, but there's no guarantee of a win. But it seems to me that Amazon might have a good defense here, just based on that idea.)

scarface74 7y ago
If you couldn’t hear, why would you buy an audiobook when there is a text version available? That’s like suing a store because you can’t walk up the stairs when they have a ramp available.
- lloyddobbler 7y ago
  The same reason someone who is deaf would buy a VHS tape (back in the day), when they could just see the film in the theater. I'm not saying it makes sense - you and I agree on that front. But as I mentioned, this is the world we live in, and people have sued for (and won) huge amounts due to odder things.
- DanBC 7y ago
  > why would you buy an audiobook when there is a text version available? Someone gives it to you. You build up a large collection and then go deaf.
- gibspaulding 7y ago
  The disability doesn't have to be impaired hearing. Maybe you suffer from a reading disability and find the feature useful for practicing reading, or for some reason have trouble focusing on text or audio on its own, but can improve your comprehension by having both simultaneously.
  - scarface74 7y ago
    If you have a reading disability, the last thing you want is an imperfectly transcribed, imperfectly punctuated text representation that would not be like what you would read normally. Text to speech translation is a well known and well solved problem that computers have been able to do well since the mid 80s. Speech to text - not so much.
- adisinom 7y ago
  - If someone else bought an audio book, I would like to be able to access it. I can't if it's audio-only. - If I want to buy and listen to an audio book, I wouldn't be able to understand the speech without seeing the text. The text gives my brain additional information to process speech. This is much more relevant for music where lyrics help me hear the vocals in the music.
dzhiurgis 7y ago
"I buy this audioboook but I want it to have raw text so I can use it with screen reader"

scarface74 7y ago

If you couldn’t hear, why would you buy an audiobook when there is a text version available? That’s like suing a store because you can’t walk up the stairs when they have a ramp available.

lloyddobbler 7y ago
The same reason someone who is deaf would buy a VHS tape (back in the day), when they could just see the film in the theater. I'm not saying it makes sense - you and I agree on that front. But as I mentioned, this is the world we live in, and people have sued for (and won) huge amounts due to odder things.
DanBC 7y ago
> why would you buy an audiobook when there is a text version available? Someone gives it to you. You build up a large collection and then go deaf.
gibspaulding 7y ago
The disability doesn't have to be impaired hearing. Maybe you suffer from a reading disability and find the feature useful for practicing reading, or for some reason have trouble focusing on text or audio on its own, but can improve your comprehension by having both simultaneously.
- scarface74 7y ago
  If you have a reading disability, the last thing you want is an imperfectly transcribed, imperfectly punctuated text representation that would not be like what you would read normally. Text to speech translation is a well known and well solved problem that computers have been able to do well since the mid 80s. Speech to text - not so much.
adisinom 7y ago
- If someone else bought an audio book, I would like to be able to access it. I can't if it's audio-only. - If I want to buy and listen to an audio book, I wouldn't be able to understand the speech without seeing the text. The text gives my brain additional information to process speech. This is much more relevant for music where lyrics help me hear the vocals in the music.

dzhiurgis 7y ago

"I buy this audioboook but I want it to have raw text so I can use it with screen reader"