Because Audible is relying on artificial intelligence, it appears the company is trying to claim a distinction between a newly created piece of text composed using AI, based on an audio recording, and the potentially near-identical text version of the book the audiobook was created from. (As evidence that the text is generated on the fly, Amazon says its transcriptions may contain errors and are not intended to be complete recereations of the text version of a book.) At the time of its launch, Audible CEO Don Katz positioned Captions as an educational feature designed for schools, telling USA Today, "We know from years and years of work, that parents and educators, in particular, understand that an audio experience of well-composed words is really important in developing learners."
"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," the complaint reads. "If Audible is not enjoined, Audible will take for itself a format of digital distribution it is not authorized to provide, devalue the market for cross-format products, and harm Publishers, authors, and the consumers who enjoy and rely on books."
