Transcription Service Legality
Dear Lazyweb,
Let's say I start a company that provides on-demand transcripts for deaf people. You submit a URL (youtube, podcast, whatever) and I produce and return a transcript of the audible content. I also retain a copy of the transcript that I have made so that the next time someone requests the same transcript I can just send it out rather than type it up all over again.
Would this be legal? I can see how someone might say that I'm creating copies of copyrighted works and selling those copies without reimbursing the original creators. I.E. people who want to "watch" The Daily Show without paying for Comedy Central can just download the transcript from me every day and get all the same jokes without paying Jon. Then again there are all those lyrics websites that make available similar collections of transcripts of copyrighted material and nobody seems to have a problem there. I guess I don't know where the line is.
Let's say I start a company that provides on-demand transcripts for deaf people. You submit a URL (youtube, podcast, whatever) and I produce and return a transcript of the audible content. I also retain a copy of the transcript that I have made so that the next time someone requests the same transcript I can just send it out rather than type it up all over again.
Would this be legal? I can see how someone might say that I'm creating copies of copyrighted works and selling those copies without reimbursing the original creators. I.E. people who want to "watch" The Daily Show without paying for Comedy Central can just download the transcript from me every day and get all the same jokes without paying Jon. Then again there are all those lyrics websites that make available similar collections of transcripts of copyrighted material and nobody seems to have a problem there. I guess I don't know where the line is.