Penguin Random House Bans AI Training with New Copyright Rules to Protect Authors

Penguin Random House Bans AI Training with New Copyright Rules to Protect Authors

By Marcus Bennett

November 16, 2024 at 07:37 PM

Penguin Random House has updated its copyright language to explicitly protect authors' intellectual property from AI training uses. The new wording, which applies across all global imprints, clearly states: "No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems."

Man wearing glasses and business attire

Man wearing glasses and business attire

The updated notices will appear in all new titles and reprinted back-listed works. The language specifically addresses large language models (LLMs) and expressly reserves titles from text and data mining, aligning with European Parliament directives.

PRH UK CEO Tom Weldon emphasized that the publisher will "vigorously defend the intellectual property that belongs to our authors and artists."

Barbara Hayes, CEO of The Authors' Licensing & Collecting Society, praised the move: "It is encouraging to see major publishers like PRH adopt new wording that reaffirms the principle of copyright and explicitly forbids technology companies from using copyrighted works to train their models."

Several publishers have already sent cease and desist letters to major LLM platforms. While Pan Macmillan, Hachette, and Simon & Schuster declined to comment on similar measures, Faber has implemented an 'AI Policy' prohibiting freelancers from using authors' books with AI programs for any purpose.

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