Hey all, I have a large amount of Audible books I have read and still have access to because my membership is still valid.  Is there a way for me to swap my Audible audio books for someone else's?  The only way I see to do it would be to swap MP3 devices, but I figure this forum may have better ways to deal with that.

Sorry no. 

Per the Help Docs--I copied and pasted. 

Why can't I swap my audiobook from audible.com? I paid for it!

burned copies of audiobooks are NOT allowed on PaperBackSwap.com. This includes audiobooks which have been downloaded and paid for at audible.com.

• We know that you paid for these, but we have no assurance that these are the only copies that were made.

If you do Post a "burned" copy of a book to your PBS bookshelf, this will jeopardize your membership at PBS.

You can't do it by exchanging access to audible accounts either. There are lots of rules against trading digital copies of books in either audio or ebook.

The MP3 items on PBS are either playaways- which are a specific manufactured device not a person's MP3 device with an ebook put to it - or a CD that is in an MP3 readable format, again a manufactured product not one someone made themselves. No books that were purchased for use in the eBook or digital download format can be swapped here.

Ebooks and digital downloads are almost always a purchase of a right to use, not a right to transfer owership. PBS has no ability to verify legality of the transfer of these items.

There are some games in the Games discussion forum where people share e-books.  There's also an e-book lover's discussion forum -- look at the bottom of the genre discussion forums.  (Discussion forums can be accessed from the Community menu.)  This are probably geared more for people who use e-books rather than Audible.com, but I'm not sure.

Some ebooks are lendable for 1 time and for only 2 wks.  That's what people swap here as far as ebooks go.  I don't think audiooks come with an lending option. If they did then I would get them in downloads and not CD. But they don't. 

I feel for you, Mary F. I have tons of Audible books myself but alas, there's no way to lend them to anybody, not even once like some ebooks.

I went and read Audible's license.  (Actually for the first time.  I don't think anyone really reads those things).  It does prohibit transfer, but that seems to me to not comply with the Fair Use aspect of Copyright law.  So, I emailed them and posed the scenario of allowing someone else to listen to my MP3 player.  We'll see how they interpret that.

I think it's fine to have someone else listen to your MP3 player  What you can't do is make a copy and trade it or sell it or even give it away.  It's probably not allowed to give someone access to your account to download them either. But that might be a gray area. I know there are people who give friends and family members access to their Amazon or Nook accounts to share ebooks.   

I understand this site's policy not to permit Audible swaps regardless of what Audible says because they cannot know how many times it has been copied, but I read like sharing is alright.  I would not have guessed that they would allow you to download to a friend's Audible-ready device as long as you were within your limit, but I think this is how this reads.  Thoughts anyone?  Does anyone know of a forum of Audible users?  I would like to find a couple of people with like tastes in books to trade MP3s with.  (I realize I cannot do it on this site).

Thank you for contacting Audible.

I am pleased to be the Customer Service Representative assisting you today.

As per your email I understand that that you would like to know if after downloading an Audiobook it is ok to have a friend listen to it .

Yes you can definitely share your book with a friend like this. Also I want to inform you that with your Audible account you are entitled to a total of seven activations . These include four computers and three mobile devices. As such you can re download your books as many times as you wish on four computers and three mobile devices. With that said you can also share your books with your friend if he/she has an Audible Ready device or computer that you can activate using your account.

I hope this was information helpful . If there is anything else that I can assist you with please let me know

Thank you.

Sincerely,

Sasha-Gaye C.

Audible Customer Support

There aren't any forums on the Audible site? That might be the better place to look. Since they aren't allowed to be swapped here, there really isn't a good forum to go about asking in.

With that said you can also share your books with your friend if he/she has an Audible Ready device or computer that you can activate using your account.

This reads to me that you aren't giving it to them to read on their account, but that you are going to have to give them your account information to use the book. You will have 7 uses, all 7 uses will be in your account. You will need to trust the person you are sharing with because they will have access to everything in your account, not just one particular book.

Nope, Audible doesn't have any forums.

You will have 7 uses, all 7 uses will be in your account. You will need to trust the person you are sharing with because they will have access to everything in your account, not just one particular book.

Yes, that's how I interpret that as well. You would need to trust the person a lot because they will have access to your personal info too not only the book so this is not something I would share with strangers.

Your interpretation of the 7 uses is correct. It's the same license that iTunes used to have (I think it changed with their DRM-free options) - you can activate multiple items on the same account to all have access to the content regardless of who owns the player.

It's great for families. We all have access to each others' accounts so we don't have to multiply purchase items.