Audible halts Captions on major publishers’ titles

In a New York district court stipulation, Audible has agreed to exclude works from a group of major publishers from its Captions program until permission and licensing issues are resolved, reports Publishers Weekly.

The stipulation is a win in the short term for the Association of American Publishers (APP) and a group of seven plaintiff publishers (Chronicle Books, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin Random House, Scholastic and Simon & Schuster), who filed a suit on 23 August to stop Audible from including their works in the program’s upcoming launch without permission. 

At this stage it’s unclear what the stipulation means for the future of the Captions program. A preliminary hearing that was set for 5 September has been moved to 25 September, and Audible is due to file its response to the suit by 13 September.

Category: International news