Authors Guild

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Big-Name Authors Sue OpenAI for 'Systematic Theft'

John Grisham, George RR Martin join lawsuit alleging pirated works helped train ChatGPT

(Newser) - A new group of authors is suing OpenAI, alleging "flagrant and harmful infringements" on their copyrights through the company's use of pirated books to train the AI chatbot ChatGPT. "At the heart of these algorithms is systematic theft on a mass scale," reads the complaint, filed...

8K Authors to AI Producers: Stop the Theft

Margaret Atwood, James Patterson, others demand compensation for work used to train AI

(Newser) - More than 8,500 authors are asking tech companies to avoid using their copyrighted work to train AI systems, unless those companies are willing to pay up. "Millions of copyrighted books, articles, essays, and poetry provide the 'food' for AI systems, endless meals for which there has been...

Publishers Howl as Amazon Seeks .Book Domain

Firm wants to snap up dozens of new names

(Newser) - A big expansion of Internet domain name suffixes is on the way and publishing industry groups are alarmed by Amazon.com's plans to get in on the action, the Wall Street Journal reports. The company is seeking to snap up names including ".book," ".author" and "...

Amazon Grabs Major e-Book Win

Get ready for $9.99 e-books

(Newser) - An e-book price-fixing settlement is a victory for Amazon—and could pave the way to lower prices for consumers. A federal judge has approved a settlement between three publishers and the Justice Department after officials argued that a total of five publishers were teaming up with Apple to boost prices...

Feds Step Up Antitrust Probe of Google Books Deal

Antitrust investigation focuses on Google's settlement with publishers

(Newser) - Justice Department investigators have intensified their probe into a deal Google made with publishers last year to put millions of books online, the Wall Street Journal reports. Publishers have been formally asked to provide information relating to the deal, which critics charge violates antitrust laws by giving Google an effective...

Authors Can Silence Talking Kindle: Amazon

(Newser) - Amazon has bowed to pressure from the Authors Guild and will allow authors and publishers to disable the controversial text-to-speech feature on its Kindle e-reader, the Los Angeles Times reports. Authors contend that the function essentially turns the e-book into an audio book, a contract violation. “They created a...

Google Settles Lawsuit Over Book Scanning for $125M

Settlement will make it easier to access out-of-print books

(Newser) - Google has settled a lawsuit concerning intellectual property rights in its book-scanning initiative, Wired reports. Google will pay $125 million to authors who claimed their work was put online without their consent. The settlement also establishes a system where many out-of-print, but still copyrighted, books will be available to buy...

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