Yesterday, a hundred authors gathered in front of Meta's London headquarters to denounce the unauthorized exploitation of their works, used to train the tech giant's AI models, in violation of their copyright. Through this mobilization, they aimed to call out the company while putting pressure on the British government, accused of inaction against what they see as a major threat to creators.
This protest follows revelations that Meta allegedly exploited the online library "LibGen" (Library Genesis), a database containing 81 million research articles and over 7.5 million books, including many works protected by copyright. According to a U.S. court document, this practice was internally approved by Mark Zuckerberg, allowing Meta's algorithms to appropriate authors' work without their consent.
The magazine "The Atlantic", which conducted an investigation into this phantom library, allows authors to check a searchable database of the titles it contains to see if their works have been pirated and potentially used to train Meta's AI models.
AJ West, leading the protest, discovered that his book "The Spirit Engineer" was included in this database. He told AFP:
"That my work, which took years to write and where I put my heart and soul, is being used to make even more money for tech billionaires, without my permission, is so disgusting."
Adding:
"They took my books and fed them into a machine specifically designed to ruin me."
When he attempted to deliver a protest letter signed by several renowned authors, including Kate Mosse and Richard Osman, West was met with closed doors at Meta's headquarters, which the protesters interpreted as a refusal to engage in dialogue.
Authors are rightly angry, according to Anna Ganley, general manager of the SOA, the British Society of Authors, campaigning against Meta's use of the LibGen dataset. She sent an open letter to Lisa Nandy, the British Secretary of State for Culture, Media and Sport, asking her to summon Meta's leaders before Parliament, which has already gathered nearly 14,000 signatures.
Meta has not responded to the letter addressed in August 2024 by the Society of Authors (SOA) to more than 70 tech companies. This letter reminded them that the exploitation and scraping of its members' works without consent constituted a copyright violation.
Its only response so far is:
"We respect third-party intellectual property rights and believe that our use of information to train AI models is compliant with existing law."

Translated from Protection du droit d'auteur : des écrivains manifestent devant les locaux de Meta à Londres

To better understand

What are the roles and responsibilities of the Society of Authors (SOA) in protecting authors' rights in the UK?

The Society of Authors (SOA) is a UK organization that protects authors' rights and interests. It advocates for fair and legal practices in the use of authors' works and lobbies for legislative reforms to protect and enhance creators' rights.