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Comment by werkjohann | Hacker News Reader

This is terrible, and while IANAL I’m confused why it doesn’t fall under ADA requirements to provide accessible versions of materials - especially school materials.

Also, can people really claim with a straight face that running a book through text-to-speech is the same as a real audiobook (that’s often a voice actor, right?)?

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I listened to all of Worm (https://parahumans.wordpress.com/) with TTS and while it wasn’t ideal, it worked out well enough that I got a full understanding of the story. I’ll note that I did this before the fan podcast to read the whole story lol. That’s a much better option now.

> Also, can people really claim with a straight face that running a book through text-to-speech is the same as a real audiobook (that’s often a voice actor, right?)?

TTS is quickly improving. While it's not quite there yet, there are already ways to have any text read with anyones voice.

There also comes a point where even if it isn't perfect, it doesn't matter to the consumer who just wants the book read to them. Meanwhile, the publishers want the revenue from selling both versions of the book.

It's not really all that grating anymore, just a bit dry in delivery. On a separate note, I think it's really dumb that voice actors can't easily record works without explicit, particular permission from an author. They should license it from the author with some sort of profit sharing per copy, but the current system means there is often only one audiobook version unless a work is public domain. And when I say license it, I mean some sort of form contract available to anyone without huge legal fees.

for books popular enough to get that treatment sure, I used to do volunteer reading to make audiobooks but had to quit when someone handed me the most pseudoscientific rubbish to read - it really felt like taking advantage - some book selling a lifestyle advice thing that would lead to immortality!!

LibriVox is a well-known project in this space that by and large focuses on worthwhile stuff, not pseudoscientific rubbish.

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