Can I create an audio recording from a book?

Creating audio from books is considered an adaptation; therefore, you would require permission unless you have a strong case that your use falls under fair dealing or one of the exceptions to copyright law.

For example, if students were to read a portion of a book for the final assessment on a voice or acting module, the recording would be limited to the exam and for marking with the sole purpose of graduating, then it would be fair dealing. The initial recital and recording fall under the exception of Illustration for instruction (S.32).

Let’s stretch it a bit. Let’s say the lecturer would like students to read portions of various books that first years have to read and make available to freshers as audiobooks. The purpose here changes from just examination purposes; the tutor will make the recording available for future students to listen to so that future students can be inspired by listening to recent graduates read.

Performance of a work falls under the exception to copyright law – an audiobook is a performance that falls under the exception of Public reading and performance (s.59) therefore since the recording will be available to students for free, and the recording will be from different books (versus the entire content of a single book) there would not be any commercial gain. Portion read should come from different books accompanied by a sufficient acknowledgement or, even better, from out of copyright text. The recording could even be published more widely via a platform like those on Open Culture, provided those participating students have consented in writing.  

However, if the students were to recite different portions of the same book, which are then going to be stuck together to comprise the entire content of the book, whilst the assessment activity would still be acceptable, the final compiled product for the first years falls out of the fair dealing requirement of s.32 and the conditions of s.59 relating to “a reasonable extract”.

The author takes no responsibility for the content of this page, which is not intended as binding legal advice. The views are about copyright in the UK Higher Education sector context.