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Unpopular opinion: audiobooks *should* be able to include captions. Hearing or the ability to process speech isn't something you either have or don't have.
I understand it presents legal complexities for licensing, but watching captions still isn't the same experience as a book.
I understand it presents legal complexities for licensing, but watching captions still isn't the same experience as a book.
A caption that streams in time with the audio, transitory, would let you confirm what you're hearing in the same way that captions on movies does. It's not a book. It's not a pirated copy of a book. It could be another potential vector for piracy, and that is a problem.
The notion that captions are the same thing as printed matter is part of why the rights issues for The Muppet Show have been such a mess for decades - all those songs they paid for rights to? The holders contend captions are the same as printing lyrics.
There are people who would get more out of audiobooks (or be able to use them at all) if they have the option of looking at captions.
More, there are people out there for whom visual books don't work and audiobooks don't work but would be able to use a book with both in tandem.
More, there are people out there for whom visual books don't work and audiobooks don't work but would be able to use a book with both in tandem.
Does it deny the chance to sell people an ebook and also the audiobook? I mean, people who need this as assistive technology weren't likely to buy them separately and kludge them together in the first place.
I also believe that authors should have more control over the rights to their work and should be able to decide what formats to sell in under what terms, so. I'm not going to shout down anyone who doesn't like this. You should be able to say "I didn't license this."
But from where I'm standing, it's a value add to the audiobook, and a point for accessiblity, and not a replacement for buying the book in a visual format.
Yeah. I mean, I know a ton of people who listen to their visual e-books using automated readers. Nobody thinks it's the same as or replaces a professionally recorded audiobook.
An automated caption system for an audiobook is basically that in reverse.
An automated caption system for an audiobook is basically that in reverse.
Fight the legal battles to be able to control licensing.
But please don't throw out the idea of autocaptioning audiobooks as unnecessary or only a vehicle for piracy.
But please don't throw out the idea of autocaptioning audiobooks as unnecessary or only a vehicle for piracy.
And as a final note: if it makes audiobook rights more valuable to do this (and I believe it does), then those rights should be worth more money.
