Amazon. Photo: Jonathan Weiss/Shutterstock.com

A coalition of publishers is suing Audible, the Amazon-owned audiobook company, over a new feature announced last month that will display the text of a book to listeners while it's read to them by their device.

That feature, called Audible Captions, is being challenged over copyright infringement by the publishers, who claim Audible is unlawfully reproducing the work of authors without permission.

The lawsuit was brought Friday by the Association of American Publishers, which is represented in the litigation by Kirkland & Ellis. Maria Pallante, the group's president, said they chose to sue Audible after the company declined to address their concerns over the feature.

"In what can only be described as an effort to seek commercial advantage from literary works that it did not create and does not own, Audible is willfully pushing a product that is unauthorized, interferes and competes with established markets, and is vulnerable to grammatical and spelling inaccuracies," Pallante said. "It is a disservice to everyone affected, including readers."

Audible responded to the lawsuit in a statement by saying they were surprised by the implication that they haven't been speaking to publishers about the feature, which hasn't yet launched.

"We disagree with the claims that this violates any rights and look forward to working with publishers and members of the professional creative community to help them better understand the educational and accessibility benefits of this innovation," the statement from Audible said.

Attorneys for the publishers argued in the lawsuit that the new feature will infringe on their rights by allowing users to read along with the narrator without purchasing the text version of the book. Other features from Audible, which allow users to either read along with the narrator, or switch to a text-only version of the book, require a purchase of both the audiobook and the digital book.

The new feature is different. Audible Captions will display the text to users in real time while it's being read to them. The text will also be generated based on transcription technology from Audible, which the publishers say is far from perfect.

Audible has conceded as much to publishers, according to the lawsuit. Up to 6% of the text could include errors, such as transcribing the Yiddish phrase "mazel tov" as "mazel tough," the lawsuit said.

That's one of three reasons the publishers argued they would experience irreparable harm if Audible rolls out the new feature.

They argued that authors and publishers invest time and financial resources to ensure the quality of their work is presented to readers as it's written, free of errors. Having a feature that may display text that doesn't mirror what publishers or authors intended would devalue their reputation, the suit argued.

"The Distributed Text contains extensive errors that, of course, are not approved by the Works' authors or Publishers, and does not reflect Publishers' desired presentation," the lawsuit said.

It would also create a mechanism in which the new feature from Audible is directly competing with the product of publishers, both in digital and print form. Readers could see it as a replacement for the other features from Audible, which require users to purchase both the audiobook and a digital version of the book.

"Audible Captions, by contrast, does not require the purchase of an eBook, misappropriating the right to distribute text and depriving authors and Publishers compensation for distribution of their written works thereby lessening their incentive and ability to create and publish works for consumers," the lawsuit said. "It is hard to compete with free."

That leads into the third cause of harm alleged by the publishers, who claim the new feature would devalue the price point of their product. Consumers will no longer see the value in purchasing the physical or digital version of a book if they can read along with the audiobook for free, the publishers argued.

"The Copyright Act entitles Publishers and their authors to receive compensation for the text of Works, and Audible's infringement will cause them to lose unquantifiable revenues and good will and provide consumers with less incentive to participate in the properly authorized Audible Immersion market," the lawsuit said.

Audible Immersion is one of the features already authorized by the company. It allows users to read along with the text of a book while it's narrated, but requires a purchase of both products. Attorneys on the suit included photos of that and the new feature, which they've alleged will appear "remarkably similar" to users.

Along with the lawsuit Friday, attorneys for the publishers requested a hearing for a preliminary injunction against the feature. That hearing is scheduled for Sept. 5.

Seven publishers are named as plaintiffs in the lawsuit, including Chronicle Books, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Penguin Random House, Scholastic, and Simon & Schuster.

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