Authors Protest Against Meta for Using Copyrighted Books to Train AI

'Meta has stolen books': authors to protest in London against AI trained using 'shadow library'

Writers will gather at the Facebook owner's King's Cross office in opposition to its use of the LibGen database to train its AI models Authors and other publishing industry professionals will stage a demonstration outside Meta's London office today in protest of the organisation's use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence. Novelists Kate Mosse and Tracy Chevalier as well as poet and former Royal Society of Literature chair Daljit Nagra will be among those in attendance outside the company's King's Cross office. Protesters will meet at Granary Square at 1.30pm and a letter to Meta from the Society of Authors (SoA) will be hand-delivered at 1.45pm. It will also be sent to Meta headquarters in the US. Earlier this year, a US court filing alleged that Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved the company's use of a notorious "shadow library", LibGen, which contains more than 7.5 million books. Last month, the Atlantic republished a searchable database of the titles contained in LibGen, through which many authors discovered their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. SoA chair Vanessa Fox O'Loughlin characterised Meta's actions as "illegal, shocking, and utterly devastating for writers". "A book can take a year or longer to write. Meta has stolen books so that their AI can reproduce creative content, potentially putting these same authors out of business," she added. A spokesperson from Meta said: "We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law." A group of prominent authors including Mosse, Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro and Val McDermid recently signed an SoA letter addressed to culture secretary Lisa Nandy, asking for Meta executives to be summoned to parliament. The statement was published on Change.org as a petition which has since garnered 7,000 signatures. "I was horrified to see that my novels were on the LibGen database and I'm disgusted by the government's silence on the matter," said novelist AJ West, who is leading today's protest. "To have my beautiful books ripped off like this without my permission and without a penny of compensation then fed to the AI monster feels like I've been mugged." A court filing made in January by a group of authors suing Meta for copyright infringement in the US - which includes Ta-Nehisi Coates, Jacqueline Woodson, Andrew Sean Greer, Junot Díaz and the comedian Sarah Silverman - claimed that company executives, including Zuckerberg, were aware that LibGen is a database believed to contain pirated material when they allowed its use. Authors are "rightly up in arms", said SoA chief executive Anna Ganley. "The fact that these online libraries of pirated books continue to exist is bad enough, but when global companies use them to unlawfully access and exploit authors' copyright-protected works, it is a double blow for authors." Demonstrators are encouraged to make placards, and the SoA has suggested several protest hashtags: #MetaBookThieves, #DoTheWriteThing and #MakeItFair.

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI

Around 100 authors on Thursday protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the US tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books," in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen," which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in "LibGen," allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law." But AJ West, author of "The Spirit Engineer," said he felt "abused and disgusted" when he found his work on the database. "To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, without my permission, is so disgusting," he told AFP. "They've taken my books and fed them into a machine that is specifically designed to ruin me," he added. West attempted to deliver a letter, signed by leading authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, at the Meta front desk, but found the doors locked. "It's very telling that a company that saw fit to steal billions of words is now afraid of 500 words on one sheet of paper. It's insult piled upon insult," he said. West called on the UK government to intervene, saying it was "reprehensible" that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had "said nothing" about "the biggest attack on British copyright in history." 'Has to be consequences' Author and TV writer Gail Renard, 69, told AFP that "if you stole a diamond ring there'd be consequences and there has to be consequences." "The creative industry is Britain's second-biggest industry. We bring in £125 billion ($164 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There's a lot of anger here," added the author. Artist and author Sophie Parkin, 63, said the situation was "a life-changer for everybody, because what's the point of going on writing?" "They aren't even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it," added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading "AI pay authors." She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of "toadying up to these billionaires." The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works focusing anger on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models. The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US "fair use" provisions, but that argument is starting to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere.

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI

London (AFP) - Around 100 authors on Thursday protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the US tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books", in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen", which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in "LibGen", allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law." But AJ West, author of "The Spirit Engineer", said he felt "abused and disgusted" when he found his work on the database. "To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, without my permission, is so disgusting," he told AFP. "They've taken my books and fed them into a machine that is specifically designed to ruin me," he added. West attempted to deliver a letter, signed by leading authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, at the Meta front desk, but found the doors locked. "It's very telling that a company that saw fit to steal billions of words is now afraid of 500 words on one sheet of paper. It's insult piled upon insult," he said. West called on the UK government to intervene, saying it was "reprehensible" that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had "said nothing" about "the biggest attack on British copyright in history". 'Has to be consequences' Author and TV writer Gail Renard, 69, told AFP that "if you stole a diamond ring there'd be consequences and there has to be consequences". "The creative industry is Britain's second-biggest industry. We bring in £125 billion ($164 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There's a lot of anger here," added the author. Artist and author Sophie Parkin, 63, said the situation was "a life-changer for everybody, because what's the point of going on writing?" "They aren't even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it," added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading "AI pay authors". She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of "toadying up to these billionaires". The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works focusing anger on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models. The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US "fair use" provisions, but that argument is started to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere.

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI

A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen", which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law."Around 100 authors on Thursday protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the US tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books", in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen", which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in "LibGen", allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law." But AJ West, author of "The Spirit Engineer", said he felt "abused and disgusted" when he found his work on the database. "To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, without my permission, is so disgusting," he told AFP. "They've taken my books and fed them into a machine that is specifically designed to ruin me," he added. West attempted to deliver a letter, signed by leading authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, at the Meta front desk, but found the doors locked. "It's very telling that a company that saw fit to steal billions of words is now afraid of 500 words on one sheet of paper. It's insult piled upon insult," he said. West called on the UK government to intervene, saying it was "reprehensible" that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had "said nothing" about "the biggest attack on British copyright in history". - 'Has to be consequences' - Author and TV writer Gail Renard, 69, told AFP that "if you stole a diamond ring there'd be consequences and there has to be consequences". "The creative industry is Britain's second-biggest industry. We bring in £125 billion ($164 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There's a lot of anger here," added the author. Artist and author Sophie Parkin, 63, said the situation was "a life-changer for everybody, because what's the point of going on writing?" "They aren't even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it," added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading "AI pay authors". She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of "toadying up to these billionaires". The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works focusing anger on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models. The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US "fair use" provisions, but that argument is started to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere. jwp/jkb/rmb

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to train AI

Around 100 authors on Thursday protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the U.S. tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading, "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books," in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A U.S. court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen," which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books.

Authors hold London protest against Meta for 'stealing' work to develop AI

LONDON (ANN/AFP/THE STAR) - Around 100 authors on April 3 protested outside the London headquarters of Meta, accusing the US tech giant of "stealing" content to train its Artificial Intelligence models. Writers chanted "Meta, Meta, book thieves" as they made their way to the Meta building, with some carrying placards reading "I'd write a sign but you'd steal it" and "Get the Zuck off our books", in reference to Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg. A US court filing earlier this year alleged that Zuckerberg approved the company using the online library "LibGen", which provides access to copyrighted works and contains more than 7.5 million books. The Atlantic magazine has published a searchable database of the titles contained in "LibGen", allowing authors to find out if their works may have been used to train Meta's AI models. A Meta spokesperson told the Guardian that "we respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe our use of information to train AI models is consistent with existing law." But AJ West, author of The Spirit Engineer, said he felt "abused and disgusted" when he found his work on the database. "To have my work that took years to write, and that I poured my heart and soul into, used to make tech billionaires even more money, without my permission, is so disgusting," he told AFP. "They've taken my books and fed them into a machine that is specifically designed to ruin me," he added. West attempted to deliver a letter, signed by leading authors including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, at the Meta front desk, but found the doors locked. "It's very telling that a company that saw fit to steal billions of words is now afraid of 500 words on one sheet of paper. It's an insult piled upon insult," he said. West called on the UK government to intervene, saying it was "reprehensible" that Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy had "said nothing" about "the biggest attack on British copyright in history". 'Has to be consequences' Author and TV writer Gail Renard, 69, told AFP that "if you stole a diamond ring there'd be consequences and there has to be consequences". "The creative industry is Britain's second-biggest industry. We bring in GBP125 billion (MYR723.43 billion) a year. If you want to kill off the creative industries, kill off our copyright. There's a lot of anger here," added the author. Artist and author Sophie Parkin, 63, said the situation was "a life-changer for everybody, because what's the point of going on writing?" "They aren't even creating anything, they are stealing our words and then making money out of it," added Parkin, who was wearing a sign on her sunhat reading "AI pay authors". She also urged the government to take action, accusing Prime Minister Keir Starmer of "toadying up to these billionaires". The protest was yet another instance of creators of copyrighted works to direct their frustration on companies building generative AI platforms that ingest huge amounts of words, images or sounds to build their predictive models. The leading AI companies have put forward claims that they are allowed to do so under US "fair use" provisions, but that argument is starting to be tested in courts in America and elsewhere.