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But if people create the text version of it by listening to the audiobook, it won’t have all that fancy formatting and extra work that you said goes into the pr

But if people create the text version of it by listening to the audiobook, it won’t have all that fancy formatting and extra work that you said goes into the print version. So, in this scenario, the user isn’t getting all that extra value produced by the work of a person doing the fancy formatting. Which makes it sound like they are not infringing on the copyright of that work, as they are not getting it by either using software or transcribing the audiobook by hand.

gamblor956 7y ago
But they are infringing on the copyright of the work. They've created a copy of the work in a different medium, which is one of the textbook examples of copyright infringement (not getting into whether fair use defense applies).
- filoleg 7y ago
  >But they are infringing on the copyright of the work. They are infringing in the same way as pen and paper companies are infringing when you hand-write the contents of an audiobook on paper for personal consumption. I believe that most people would consider this being an allowable thing to do.
  - gamblor956 7y ago
    No, they're not even remotely the same thing. It's like saying that English and Javascript are both programming languages because they use the same alphabet. Pen and paper companies sell you tools/materials to create works. They don't know or care what you create with those works. For all they care, you could just eat the pen and paper. Importantly to this example: they don't transcribe the audio--you do. Your transcription is a derivative work and if a fair use exception does not apply, would be copyright infringement if the copyright owner cared to enforce it in these circumstances. Amazon's Kindle transcribes the audio of an audiobook using software created by its programmers for the sole purpose of transcribing audiobooks. You don't do anything. Amazon does all the work, at your request. And that makes all the difference, because what Amazon is doing has pecuniary value and thus fair use would not apply to their actions. I believe that most people would consider this being an allowable thing to do. Most people also believe it's okay to speed. It's still against the law and it's not a defense to a speeding ticket when you get caught.

gamblor956 7y ago

But they are infringing on the copyright of the work. They've created a copy of the work in a different medium, which is one of the textbook examples of copyright infringement (not getting into whether fair use defense applies).

filoleg 7y ago
>But they are infringing on the copyright of the work. They are infringing in the same way as pen and paper companies are infringing when you hand-write the contents of an audiobook on paper for personal consumption. I believe that most people would consider this being an allowable thing to do.
- gamblor956 7y ago
  No, they're not even remotely the same thing. It's like saying that English and Javascript are both programming languages because they use the same alphabet. Pen and paper companies sell you tools/materials to create works. They don't know or care what you create with those works. For all they care, you could just eat the pen and paper. Importantly to this example: they don't transcribe the audio--you do. Your transcription is a derivative work and if a fair use exception does not apply, would be copyright infringement if the copyright owner cared to enforce it in these circumstances. Amazon's Kindle transcribes the audio of an audiobook using software created by its programmers for the sole purpose of transcribing audiobooks. You don't do anything. Amazon does all the work, at your request. And that makes all the difference, because what Amazon is doing has pecuniary value and thus fair use would not apply to their actions. I believe that most people would consider this being an allowable thing to do. Most people also believe it's okay to speed. It's still against the law and it's not a defense to a speeding ticket when you get caught.