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Michael Cader

Your Books Trained Those Large Language Models

August 21, 2023
By Michael Cader

As is already being contested in a number of lawsuits seeking class action status, the core datasets on which all of the major large language models have been trained rely on stolen, copyrighted books. As a new Atlantic magazine article by Alex Reisner puts it, “Pirated books are being used as inputs for computer programs that are changing how we read, learn, and communicate. The future promised by AI is written with stolen words.” BookCorpus was stolen from Smashwords authors. Books3 is a body of between 150,000 and 190,000 books from established publishers and authors. The Atlantic piece extracts the […]

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Judge Approves Internet Archive Permanent Injunction, Limits It to Works That Have eBook Editions

August 14, 2023
By Michael Cader

On Monday US District Court John Koeltl quickly approved the proposed permanent injunction filed last Friday by the litigating AAP publishers and the Internet Archive, following his finding that the IA had infringed authors’ copyrights. That action means the imposition of the injunction — and the bringing down of illegal ebooks — will commence shortly. But the judge did agree with the Internet Archive to limit the injunction so as to apply only to books for which the publisher has a commercially-available ebook edition. His reasoning, as the IA had argued, was that the 127 named works in the case […]

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Another Day Another Suit: Music Companies Sue Internet Archive Over Their Infringement

August 14, 2023
By Michael Cader

The NYT ran a disappointingly naive and ill-founded article on the Internet Archive’s clear, unequivocal, comprehensive loss in court for copyright infringement of published books on a “mass” scale. They fall head over heels for Brewster Kahle as performer of a “good deed” based on a simple “notion” of helping when he conferred to himself the power to violate copyright laws from around the world and break even his own fake lending rules when he gave away millions of ebooks “mostly unavailable elsewhere” (also proven false) without limits during the pandemic. Fortunately, there is a fact-based record with the court, […]

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Proposed Internet Archive Judgment Would Bring Down Infringing Files Right Away

August 11, 2023
By Michael Cader

On Friday the AAP and Internet Archive jointly filed with US District Court Judge John Koeltl the long-awaited proposed consent judgment and permanent injunction, following the judge’s forceful and unequivocal ruling from March finding the IA guilty of “wholesale copying and unauthorized lending” on a “mass” scale. Most importantly for the near term, they ask to the court to enter a permanent injunction that “is effective immediately and shall not be stayed pending [any] appeal” that means the illegal distribution of the named plaintiffs’ full catalogs of in-copyright books will stop right away (within 14 days of providing notice). Because […]

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Harper’s Sales and Earnings Fall to Close “A Tough Year”

August 11, 2023
By Michael Cader

Harper Collins reported a weak end to a difficult fiscal year, with fourth quarter sales of $446 million down $67 million from a year ago, 13 percent lower. EBITDA suffered even more, at just $16 million, compared to $47 million a year ago. $20 million of that gap was due to the calendar — with an additional 14th week included in last year’s quarter. The company also lost some revenue to foreign exchange. Broadly, News Corp. cited “lower book sales due to lower consumer demand industry-wide, [and] weak frontlist performance, which contributed to higher returns.” Earnings fell on a mix […]

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Backman Signs with UTA

August 9, 2023
By Michael Cader

Bestelling author Fredrik Backman has signed with UTA for representation in all areas, after terminating his longtime representatives at the Salomonsson Agency earlier this year and waiting for a notice period to pass. UTA says they “will represent Backman across various divisions, expanding his publishing business alongside media rights, theater, podcasts and more.” Co-head of UTA Publishing Byrd Leavell said in their announcement, “We’re thrilled to welcome Fredrik Backman to the UTA family. His emotionally resonant and insightful work has made an impact on countless readers across generations, myself among them, and we’re looking forward to helping him reach even […]

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