Ten thousand authors protest AI theft with publication of empty book
'Don't Steal This Book' says UK government 'must not legalise' mass pilfering
WHAT’S HAPPENED?
NEARLY TEN THOUSAND authors have published an empty book to protest against the theft of their copyrighted works by AI companies. Launched at the London Book Fair (LBF) and titled Don’t Steal This Book the paperback calls on the UK government to rule out the legalisation of large-scale pilfering when it declares its long-awaited stance on AI and copyright next week. Should ministers ignore the authors’ plea then the book’s back page warns:
“This is what we’ll be left with: empty pages, writers without pay, and readers deprived of the next book they’ll love.”
Free copies of the book — its pages are blank apart from the authors’ names — are being handed out at this week’s LBF, the publishing industry’s global marketplace. Authors backing the protest publication include:
Cecelia Ahern, David Almond, Jeffrey Archer, Pam Ayres, Antony Beevor, Terence Blacker, Malorie Blackman, William Boyd, Gyles Brandreth, Ann Cleeves, Caroline Criado Perez, Kevin Crossley-Holland, Imtiaz Dharker, Inua Ellams, R. J. Ellory, Sebastian Faulks, Anne Fine, Lucy Foley, Michael Foreman, Michael Frayn, Jane Green, Philippa Gregory, Tessa Hadley, Janice Hallett, David Hare, Mick Herron, Eric Idle, Mick Inkpen, Sir Kazuo Ishiguro, E. L. James, Peter James, Adam Kay, AL Kennedy, Tom Kerridge, Marian Keyes, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Andrew Lownie, Robert Macfarlane, Sarah Morgan, Kate Mosse, Beverley Naidoo, David Olusoga, Alice Oseman, Adele Parks, Korky Paul, Lesley Pearse, Dawn O’Porter, Richard Osman, Meg Rosoff, Sathnam Sanghera, Kamila Shamsie, Gill Sims, Karin Slaughter, Ali Smith, Piers Torday, Minette Walters, Jacqueline Wilson, and Jeanette Winterson.
Kate Mosse accused AI companies of “building their billion-dollar products by stealing our creative work, without permission, payment or conscience”.
“This must end — Big Tech must pay authors for using their work, just as they pay everyone else involved in their industry. Theft is theft.”
Adele Parks said: “I don’t pour my heart and soul into capturing the human condition in the books I write, for tech giants to steal or for the government to give away. Normal people pay for books, why should the billionaires feel exempt from that?” Jeanette Winterson chimed in saying Big Tech’s mantra, Move Fast and Break Things, had been “a lousy teenage T-shirt slogan”.
“Slow Down and Fix Things is what the world needs now. Creative people do that every day of our lives. We take the time we need and contribute to global good. My message to Big Tech is simple. If you can’t actively support us — and you aren’t doing that — then stop stealing our stuff. Your bots can’t do what we do. Accept it and move on.”
The empty book campaign is the brainchild of ethical AI campaigner Ed Newton-Rex, organiser of last year’s protest album Is This What We Want? backed by over 1,000 musicians and featuring recordings of empty studios and performance spaces (Charting #81). Newton-Rex said the AI industry was built on the stolen “life’s work of writers and other creatives, taken without permission or payment”.
“This is not a victimless crime — generative AI competes with the people whose work it is trained on, robbing them of their livelihoods. The government must protect the UK’s creatives and refuse to legalise the theft of creative work by AI companies.”
Supporting the campaign Anna Ganley, CEO at the Society of Authors, said creatives were calling time “on the theft of their books by Big Tech”, and demonstrating “what will happen if AI companies continue to steal authors’ works: writers being unable to pay their bills, leading to empty pages and the loss of jobs across the creative industries”.
Ganley, who is also chair of the Creators’ Rights Alliance (CRA), a coalition of 21 creator-led organisations representing over 500,000 creative workers, added: “We urge the government to protect authors’ rights in the age of generative AI.” Dan Conway, CEO of the Publishers Association, said he hoped the government would “listen and act decisively to take any form of copyright exception enabling free access to content by AI firms off the table.” “Copyright is a driver of innovation, creativity and growth and it’s heartening to see so many world-beating authors standing up for it,” he added.
Also backing the campaign is book publisher Penguin Random House UK whose LinkedIn account quoted CEO Tom Weldon as saying: “Publishing is one of the UK’s great creative success stories, a world-leading industry that exports British stories, talent and ideas across the globe while contributing billions to our economy and shaping our national identity.
“At its heart is something irreplaceable: human creativity, experience, and expertise. We welcome innovation, but it must not come at the expense of the creators who power it.”
WHY SHOULD WE CARE?
✨Across the world creatives are battling Big Tech over its rampant thievery and seeking to get their voices heard by policymakers. By enlisting the support of an army of authors — the list is a veritable Who’s Who of leading writers — this initiative strikes home its twin messages: unchecked AI will destroy livelihoods, and massively diminish our cultures. Crucially, by generating coverage in mainstream media, Newton-Rex’ latest campaign does something else: it raises the awareness of the general public. That’s absolutely critical since without public pressure governments won’t feel the need to stand up to Big Tech and its useful idiot cheerleaders in the US White House. The UK government has been warned time and time again of the need to protect the nation’s £124 billion ($167 billion, €144 billion) creative industries which employ 2.4 million people. As tech secretary Liz Kendall and culture secretary Lisa Nandy prepare to sign off next week’s statement on AI and copyright they should first read the full list of authors involved in this empty book protest and consider the millions of readers they collectively connect with. Are Kendall and Nandy really going to ignore them?
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Yes yes yes! Tempted to write handwritten thank you notes to every single one of those authors.