Authors in London protest Meta’s theft of book and use of ‘Shadow Library’ to train AI

A demonstration will be held today outside Meta’s London office by authors and other publishing industry experts protesting the organization’s use of copyrighted books for training artificial intelligence.

Notable figures like novelists Kate Moss and Tracy Chevalier, poet Daljit Nagra, and former chairman of the Royal Literature Society, are expected to be present outside Meta’s Kings Cross office.

Protesters will gather at Granary Square at 1:30 pm, with hand-written letters to Meta by the Authors Association (SOA) planned for 1:45 pm, also to be sent to Meta’s US headquarters.

Earlier this year, Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg allegedly approved the use of Libgen, known as the “Shadow Library,” which contains over 7.5 million books. The Atlantic recently released a searchable database of the titles in Libgen, suggesting that authors’ works may have been used to train Meta’s AI models.

SOA Chair Vanessa Fox O’Loughlin condemned Meta’s actions as “illegal, shocking, and devastating for writers.”

Vanessa added, “Books take years to write, and Meta stealing them for AI replication threatens authors’ livelihoods.”

In response, a Meta spokesperson claimed they respect intellectual property rights and believe their actions comply with the law.

Several prominent authors, including Moss, Richard Osman, Isiguro Kawako, and Val McDermid, signed a letter to Culture Secretary Lisa Nandi asking for Meta executives to appear before Congress. The petition garnered over 7,000 signatures.

Today’s protest is led by novelist AJ West, who expressed dismay at seeing their work in the Libgen database without consent.

A court filing in January revealed a group of authors suing Meta for copyright infringement, noting the impact on authors’ rights by using unauthorized databases like Libgen.

SOA’s chief executive Anna Gunley emphasized the detrimental effect of companies exploiting authors’ copyrighted works.

Protesters are encouraged to create placards and use hashtags like #MetaBookThieves, #DothewRiteThing, #MakeItfair.