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
