Herb’s Blog, Herbdate 23551 – 1216
I started this post several weeks ago and it was just hanging out in my drafts folder. I usually leave all the tabs open that pertain to what I’m studying until I’m done with the sources but this time they got away. I could spend time digging around in my history and sourcing all my stuff again or I could just tell you that I looked it up and these are my opinions and you are welcome to do the same searching I did. If you wish. If it even interests you as it did me.
Here’s the haps:
I bought a real book a while back and was intrigued by the copyright notice (Yes, I read every little bit and part of a book. At the price they charge for books I can’t afford to let one ISBN escape my notice 😂😉). It reads:
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, distributed, or transmitted in any form or by any means, without prior written permission, except in the case of brief excerpts for the purpose of review. No artificial intelligence technology was used in the any way in writing of this work, and no use may be made of this publication for the training of generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies without express written consent from the author.
Author Sarah Angleton – Paradise on the Pike
I got to wondering about how really big of an issue we were looking at and what was being done about it. In my defense, I have been busier than a vacuum cleaner in a dirt factory and haven’t had a lot of time to do thorough research but while I knew there were a lot of issues related to AI, I wasn’t sure of the level of severity of it. On some of the writer’s forums, people were saying a notice like this isn’t necessary because your work is already protected. Which is true. As soon as you put your creation into any type of tangible form, e.g., blog post, Word document, crayon scribblings, etc., it is protected by copyright. That’s true (in the U.S. anyway. I don’t know about elsewhere. By the way, just so you know, I am not an attorney and I don’t even play one on TV so for real legal advice please contact someone with a clue, thanks.) but I think we should also be diligent. There are way too many people and companies that believe everything on the Internet is free and free game and free to use any old way they please.
One article I read interviewed an author whose name I can’t remember but has 32 books to their credit who said that all someone would have to do is feed all 32 books into an AI and it could pop out her 33rd book by itself. Who needs an author? As I was reading all of these things, friend of this blog, Jacqui Murray, wrote about copyright on the Story Empire website and we discussed AI briefly in the comments. She said she was planning to use such a statement, only more strongly worded, in her next book series. She already uses one on her websites that says:
The content presented in this blog are the result of creative imagination and not intended for use, reproduction, or incorporation into any artificial intelligence training or machine learning systems without prior written consent from the author.
Jacqui Murray
I then found an article on the Author’s Guild, which appears to work with more traditionally published authors, website that also said it was a good idea to place such a statement and their sample said:
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
Author’s Guild
They also recommend editing your robots.txt file to disallow GPTbot. This is a file that you really should handle with care and I plan to do some more research before I dive in.
I have cobbled the following notice together following the examples above and others I have seen, along with the little “No AI” icon and you are more than welcome to use any or all of it as you wish. Or make your own.
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The content of this blog, my website and any other of my works in any other form are my original creation. They are not free to use in any way or form without my express, written license and consent except as provided for by U.S. copyright law. This includes, but is not limited to, use for training of generative artificial intelligence, large language models, and any other technologies past, present, or future which use any part of the work of the author.
Comments
17 responses to “Copyright Notice Protecting Against AI And Machine Learning”
It’s quite interesting. I was just reading up on AI involved music production. You can create whole songs from AI writing the lyrics, to creating the music, and even creating a virtual voice to go along with it. It’s a new world!!!
It’s crazy out there, for sure!
I do now have a warning in my copyright section. We’ve come to this, have we, as writers. I was surprised when talking to my long-time cover designer that they offered the choice between an AI-free cover or not, and explained why an AI-infused cover made sense.
Hunh…
Wow. I am surprised that an artist would not be bothered by that but I know that there are enough people out there to make it profitable.
AI, and what it can do, is utterly frightening. Whoever came up with this probably did so to make people’s lives easier, but surely they must have known it would be misused. Total shame.
Of all the excerpts I thought someone might use from one of my books, this was definitely not one of them. Is it weird that I’m thrilled? I did roughly adapt my statement from examples available from the Author’s Guild. I honestly didn’t know if it was really necessary, either, but I figured it couldn’t hurt. It’s a whole new world out there with the growth of AI. Lots to learn and consider.
It was the first time I had seen something like that but it made so much sense. We have to protect ourselves, I think.
The only time I would be worried about copyrights in relation to artificial intelligence is if I were being paid for my writings.. which I am not… so the entire issue is mute with me.
Yeah, that’s true. But if you want to train your computer, write your own stuff, don’t take mine.
There are a lot of writers who are already indistinguishable from AI. The ones most threatened are those pursuing mass market fiction. It’s really only a matter of time before James Patterson, for example, dispenses with his legion of coauthors. He doesn’t need ‘em anymore. Who could argue the difference?
Interesting take, to be sure. I always appreciate you stopping by and commenting because you frequently have a different perspective. I’m sorry this comment wound up in in my spam folder somehow..
I figured something like that happened. Thanks for freeing me from the spam!
Yes sir. I don’t know why it does that and there is no way to “white list” someone so I go check the folder every once in a while.
All these technologies get outdated so fast. I am just going to wait for BI or CI updates to come out before I start using.
I know. And we are so far behind. China is already up to Xi.
Leave it to the retired lawyer to pay no attention to any of this stuff. Sigh. I guess I need to review my legal notice.
BTW, I have been catching up on my blog reading and thought I was caught up, but found this that did not show up in my WP reader. I had better see if I missed more!
I’m sorry if you missed any. When I switched URLs to thehapswithherb.com some stuff didn’t get picked up by the reader. I haven’t been creating a lot of content of late, either.