To Get Some Audiobooks, You’ve Got to Be Blind

USA Today points out that many titles recorded for blind people have never been heard by anyone else. That’s because US copyright law permits the Library of Congress to produce audio recordings of any published work regardless of whether or not the author gives permission. Hence blind audiences get to hear titles such as JD Salinger’s The Catcher in the Rye that aren’t available as commercial audiobooks. You can hardly blame Salinger’s fans for resorting to file-sharing sites in search of bootleg copies of Ray Hagen’s recording of Catcher.

Here’s a link to the USA Today story: “To Get Some Audiobooks, You’ve Got to Be Blind.”