Tech firms using content without consent

The International Publishers’ Association (IPA) president Karine Pansa accused big technology companies of using copyrighted content “without permission” for AI-generated materials and urged publishers to raise their concerns.
Pansa, who recently visited India for the ongoing New Delhi World Book Fair, said the IPA is holding discussions with its member countries, including India, on how to deal with the big tech companies for infringing publishers’ copyrights by “reproducing their materials without permission” for AI training.
“The big tech companies are using the content available on the internet to regenerate the new content without consent, and part of this content is books, the content of which belongs to the publishers. It is being used without their permission, consent, licensed payment, and remuneration.
“So it is an important part of the IPA’s job to discuss how each country is going to deal with this new technology and this new copyright infringement,” Pansa told PTI, adding that the organisation will soon pen an open letter regarding the issue.
IPA, founded in 1896 in Paris with the promotion and defence of copyright and the freedom to publish, is the world’s largest federation of national, regional and specialist publishers’ associations.
Based in Geneva, Switzerland, the organisation comprises 100 plus members from 81 countries.
Terming the alleged copyright infringement by the big tech companies — including Microsoft, Meta and OpenAI — a serious matter, Pansa said it is sad that not many people, even those belonging to the publishing industry, are aware of the unfair use of the authors’ copyrighted works.
She encouraged publishers to come forward and raise their concerns, ensuring IPA’s full support.
“We need to make sure that the publishers also value their own work, because sometimes they don’t.
“They just publish, they do their best with their content, but they do not brand, they don’t value their names, we need to make them powerful, just the same way as these tech companies have,” pointed Pansa, who is also the owner of Girassol Brasil Edi es — a children’s book publishing house in Sao Paolo, Brazil.
Globally, several groups of authors, including the likes of novelist John Grisham and “Game of Thrones” author George RR Martin, have filed lawsuits over the use of their text in AI training.