contract-law
Am I allowed to create an audio book from a printed book published by Routledge?
<p>I have the permission of the authors to create an audio version of a book published in 2015. The audio version would be licensed under a Creative Commons license.</p>

<p>The book is published by <a href="https://www.routledge.com/" rel="nofollow">Routledge</a> under the following conditions:</p>

<blockquote>
  <p>© 2015 selection and editorial material, Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico
  Demaria and Giorgos Kallis; individual chapters, the contributors. The
  Introduction, Epilogue and chapters 14 and 36 are subject to copyleft
  licensing.</p>
  
  <p>FROM THE CONTRACT </p>
  
  <p>3 Copyright
  3.1 The copyright in the Editor’s part in and to the Work and any Contribution written by the Editor for inclusion therein will remain
  the property of the Editor but nothing in Clause 3.1 (this clause)
  shall affect any rights separately granted by Contributors to the
  Publishers. The copyright notice to be printed in the Work will be in
  the name of Giacomo D’Alisa, Federico Demaria and Giorgos Kallis for
  selection and editorial material and in the case of Contributions, the
  name of the copyright owner of the particular contribution with year
  of first publication.</p>
  
  <p>(a) In consideration of the payment to the Editor of the fee and/or
  applicable royalty percentages of the Publishers’ receipts set out in
  Clause 9, <strong>the Editor grants to the Publishers the sole and exclusive
  right and license to adapt, produce and publish</strong>, and to license others
  to adapt, produce and publish, the whole or any part of the Editor’s
  part in and to the Work and any Contribution written for inclusion
  therein or any abridgement, adaptation or translation of the Editor’s
  part in and to the Work, <strong>in all forms and media</strong>, in the English
  language only throughout the world for the full term of copyright,
  (including all renewals and extensions of that term). …</p>
</blockquote>

<p>The parts that you bolded do clearly indicate that only Routledge has the right to adapt, produce and publish, or to let others do same, in any form – in English. So editor's permission is irrelevant, though perhaps Routledge would take note if someone wanted to publish an audio book version over the objections of the editors. </p>

<p>There seems to be a distinction here between "the editor" and "the authors". If that is the case, then Routledge claims they have the exclusive rights to the work of the editor (who probably combined pieces by individual authors into a book), which may or may not be true. You having permission of the <em>authors</em> wouldn't give you permission to use the text as created by the editor. </p>

<p>You could (unless there are other contracts in the way) take the works of the authors, do the job of the editor and create the audio book from the unedited texts. However, if the authors gave <em>you</em> permission, and also gave Routledge exclusive rights, then this will end up messy for everyone. </p>
