The book, titled Don’t Steal This Book, is empty of any text except the names of the authors involved, and represents the impact on authors’ livelihoods and the publishing industry that is expected if the government proceeds with plans that would make it easier to train AI models on copyright-protected work without a licence.
Most of the world’s leading AI companies are known to build their models by copying books without permission or payment, some even turning to shady pirate libraries to source these books.
This has led to dozens of lawsuits from authors and publishers around the world, one of which has recently resulted in a $1.5 billion settlement between AI company Anthropic and authors, the largest copyright settlement in history.
Under the government’s heavily criticised proposals, UK copyright law would be upended to benefit global tech giants. AI companies would be free to use an author’s work to train their AI models without permission or remuneration.
The government originally proposed changes that would require authors to proactively ‘opt-out’ from the theft of their work, reversing the key principle underlying copyright law. ‘Opt-out’ models are impossible to enforce, have yet to be proven effective anywhere else in the world, and place enormous burdens on individual authors, particularly emerging talent.
Following a public consultation on the topic last February in which just 3% of respondents agreed with this proposal, the government has said it is no longer their ‘preferred option’; but the government is now understood to be considering introducing a ‘commercial research exception’, yet another mechanism that would allow AI companies to use an author’s work to train commercial AI models without consent or compensation.
Taking this approach would mean ignoring the views of over 95% of consultation respondents who argued for the UK’s robust copyright laws to be maintained or strengthened further.
Almost 10,000 authors have added their names to the book, including 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.
The book’s publication comes a week before the government is due to release an economic impact assessment on the options outlined in the consultation, and a report on the use of copyrighted works in AI systems.
The book’s back cover bears a message to the government urging it to protect creatives, which starts: “The UK government must not legalise book theft to benefit AI companies.”
1,000 copies of the book are being handed out for free at the London Book Fair this week (10-12 March).
The full list of authors involved can be seen here.
Ed Newton-Rex, the organiser of the campaign, said:
“The AI industry is built on stolen work – the 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.”
Piers Today, one of the authors involved, said:
“AI companies have pulled off the heist of the century, stealing copyrighted material from millions of books to power their LLMs, extracting vast wealth for a privileged few at the expense of writers and artists who rely on copyright protection to make a fair living from their work. The government must not allow a copyright exception for the robber barons of Silicon Valley – if they do, a book with empty pages could soon be the only book worth publishing in the UK.”
Anna Ganley, Chief Executive of the Society of Authors, said:
“As we await Government’s report on its consultation into AI and copyright, authors call time on the theft of their books by Big Tech. ‘Don’t Steal This Book’ is published by almost 10,000 co-authors to demonstrate 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. We urge Government to protect authors’ rights in an age of generative AI.”
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