Judge rejects request to keep Audible Captions settlement secret

The judge in the Captions lawsuit has rejected a request to keep details of the settlement between Audible and the seven publishers sealed.

Last month, Audible reached a settlement with the Association of American Publishers (AAP) on behalf of Chronicle Books, Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins Publishers, Macmillan Publishing Group, Penguin Random House, Scholastic and Simon & Schuster, which states that Audible will not be allowed to use major publishers' works in its Captions programme without their permission.

Details of the settlement were not disclosed and now judge Valerie Caproni has denied a joint request from Audible and the publishers to keep the settlement details secret, saying "the parties‚Äô motion to seal the entirety of the settlement agreement is denied with leave to submit proposed redactions", adding "the public has a presumptive right to judicial documents” and “in this case, the parties have not demonstrated competing interests sufficient” to go against general practice.

Caproni added: “At this juncture, the court sees no reason to redact anything in the settlement agreement apart from settlement amount(s).”

Now Audible and the publishers have until 21st February to either submit redactions to the judge or drop the request for the court to retain jurisdiction over the agreement.