Thanks
On Dec 3, 2007, at 12:48 PM, Esther wrote:
Hi Shaun,
On Dec 2, 2007, at 2:30 PM, VaShaun Jones wrote:
Anyone know of a place that I can download audio books for free that
is accessible with voice over?
I found this recent summary:
http://www.resourceshelf.com/2007/10/11/resources-of-the-week-audio-books-for-free/
start at the title Resources of the Week: Audiobooks for Free link
and read; it's a pretty fair summary.
On Dec 02, 2007, at 01:38PM, David Poehlman wrote:
According to copyright, books for free must be out of print.
That's not strictly true, in that publishers and authors can choose to
distribute books for free. For example, Baen Books, a science fiction
publisher makes all of its books freely available to disabled readers
in electronic form with no digital rights management. And they also
maintain a general site, the Baen Free Library, of books that they've
made available this way: http://www.baen.com/library/
feed://www.webscription.net/rssfeed.aspx?channel=news
"Baen Books, a publisher of science fiction, will provide its books
to fans
who are blind, paralysed, or dyslexic, or are amputees, in electronic
form free of charge, effective immediately. . . .this service will
be available
at no cost to the disabled, who must apply for this privilege.
Applications will be processed by ReadAssist (www.readassist.org),
a volunteer group devoted to helping disabled readers find the books
they want in the form they need, and join the community of fandom.
The application form has been set up by ReadAssist, and can be found
through either WebScriptions or ReadAssist."
The Baen books are ebooks -- in HTML, RTF, or other digital format,
but other audiobook publishers or distributors release free versions
for promotional purposes.
Audible.co.uk did a promotional release of a book, "Wolf Brother" by
Michelle Paver by podcasts with The Guardian. I think the podcasts
are off the Guardian iTunes site now, (but probably still on their
web site),
but they were also released as podcasts by Audible.co.uk, and
that source is still available at iTunes:
http://phobos.apple.com/WebObjects/MZStore.woa/wa/viewPodcast?id=257840685
NAXOS audiobooks started a direct download sales site a year ago.
The mp3 files are still pretty pricey, but have no DRM, and come
with accompanying PDF booklets. They offer a few of their books
free as samples. An abridged version of Hard Times by Charles
Dickens is one of these titles:
http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/PAGES/311012.htm
as was a selection of biographies from Aubrey's Brief Lives:
http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/PAGES/237812.htm
In all these cases the publisher retains copyright and requires, as
the
terms of download that you not circulate or distribute this material
through other web sites (see their terms and conditions below)
http://www.naxosaudiobooks.com/PAGES/termsandconditions.htm
Hope this helps.
Cheers,
Esther
