Top U.S. publishers sue Amazon's Audible for copyright infringement to block new caption feature

• The lawsuit was filed by seven members of the Association of American Publishers.
• The publishers are aiming to block a planned rollout of a feature called 'Audible Captions' that shows the text on screen as a book is narrated.
• "Essentially Audible wants to provide the text as well as the sound of books without the authorization of copyright holders, despite only having the right to sell audiobooks," AAP said in a statement.

The front desk of the Amazon office is pictured in New York, May 1, 2019.

Carlo Allegri | Reuters

Amazon's Audible was sued by some of the top U.S. publishers for copyright infringement on Friday, aiming to block a planned rollout of a feature called 'Audible Captions' that shows the text on screen as a book is narrated.

The lawsuit was filed by seven members of the Association of American Publishers (AAP), including HarperCollins Publishers, Penguin Random House, Hachette Book Group, Simon & Schuster, and Macmillan Publishers.

"Essentially Audible wants to provide the text as well as the sound of books without the authorization of copyright holders, despite only having the right to sell audiobooks," AAP said in a statement.

The lawsuit was filed in the United States District Court for the Southern District of New York.

Audible did not immediately respond to a request for comment.