We recently received an interesting question via our website from Anthony about audio book copyright. I decided to answer it in a blog post as it may be relevant to others.
Anthony’s question about audio book copyright
I would like to know if a company that sells audiobooks has the right to copyright a book.
For example, someone posted an excerpt from a book called (pardon the language) “Go the F*** to Sleep”. They posted it on YouTube and Audible told them to take it down.
Since Audible only sells the audio book and it is also sold by other sources, are they able to claim copyright on it? Or shouldn’t the copyright only be with
A: The Writer of the book,
B: The reader of the Audiobook,
C: The publishing company for the actual book or
D: The publisher in charge of creating the audiobook?
Audible is just a retailer and should not have the right to claim copyright on materials they sell. Am I correct or am I incorrect?
Lee’s answer
Although the author will have copyright on the content of the book, (i.e. the words) it is possible for others to have copyright on different aspects of the book including artwork and audio narration.
In terms of an audio version of the book, unless the author / publisher get the studio and producer recording the book to sign an agreement to the contrary, the audio producer is the copyright owner of the audio. I cover this in more detail here “Copyright in Audio Book Recording & Production“.
Typically book publishing companies will make sure that they document and buy-out certain rights from the audio book production company.
In the case of Audible, although I don’t know the specifics of their agreement with the authors / publishers I do know that they sanction the recording of many of the books and therefore will most likely own the copyright in the audio book version. Under these circumstances they would have the right to say it can’t be used.
Audible strictly control how their audio can be used. As an Audible customer I know that they use DRM which makes life more complicated for honest subscribers like me. Their .aa format is their proprietary audio format which makes it impossible for me to burn CD’s of books I purchase and I have to authorise every device to play it. In my experience Audible’s software lacks flexibility with their DRM dictating the way you listen to their audio. Sorry, a different matter but one that really irritates me.
Anyway, back to the original question. The only way around this that I can see is to get permission from the author and publisher to create your own audio version. This way you can make sure that you have all of the production copyrights and do what you want with the audio.
I guess you could also contact the books author and publisher to see what their view is. Often people are grateful for the exposure and will be happy to allow part use of their material. Assuming that they have control over all of the copyrights.
Please feel free to contribute your comments and opinions.
If I make an audiobook from a book thats in Public Domain- making no changes but simply recording my voice reading the book- Can I still copyright and sale the audiobook?
Yes, I believe so. If the book is out of copyright and you create the audio version you own the copyright in the audio.
If I record an extract of about 5 minutes from a recently published library book, to go onto a Talking Newspaper USB stick, will that break any copyright laws? The memory stick contains extracts of local news with “magazine” items in between each news slot. It goes to visually impaired people who can’t read normal print. Each week the USB sticks are erased, ready for the next week’s news. The Talking Newspaper is a registered charity and sends out about 500 USB sticks each week. I would acknowledge the source of the material so it might even encourage listeners to read the book, though only if it was available as an audio book or in large print. (Most of our listeners have lost their sight in old age, so very few of them know any Braille.) Many Thanks, Jennifer
Hi Jennifer, i am not a lawyer, however, I would think that your reason for creating the audio would be seen as helpful and not cause authors any concern. I would suggest contacting them or their publisher for permission, this way you will not be upsetting anyone. Hope that helps.
I work in a school library, we have some audio book s of our english novels, for our special ed. students. We load the CDs into Itunes then copy them to an IPod so the boys can read along while listening.
My question is, if I only have one copy of the audio book can I put it onto three or four IPods for the students studying that novel?
I wrote a book but have decided to do the audio book first. Autobiography with a soundtrack, all done by me, i did the narrating, music etc. I am lost as to how do i copywrite the audio book( since the written book isnt copywritten either)
I am trying to figure out how to copywrite a audio book, i have done everything myself narration, music etc i decided to do the audio book first, so the written book is not published nor copywritten. Is that a problem
I don’t know where you are located. Here in the UK anything created is copyright, proving it and protecting it is the key to looking after it. Where are you based?
I am located in the US