Authors Guild Releases Statement on AI Licensing for Authors
The Authors Guild released a statement on December 12, 2024 stating that they believe “it is crucial that authors, not publishers or tech companies, have control over the licensing of AI rights,” and that “Authors must be able to choose whether they want to allow their works to be used by AI and under what terms.”
The statement includes six sections, including:
- AI Training Is Not Covered Under Standard Publishing Agreement
- Subsidiary Rights Do Not Include AI Rights
- Authors Retain Copyright
- Publishers Must Seek Author Permission
- Publisher Compensation Depends on AI Licensing Role
- Authors Should Get Majority Share in AI Licensing Deals
They described a fair split in a licensing deal to be 75-85 percent to the author, saying, “Note that some academic presses are presently offering authors a mere 25 percent, which unfairly allows the publisher to reap almost all of the benefit while leaving most of the risk to the author. In all cases, the splits must be negotiated between authors (and their agents) and publishers as a new type of use that was not contemplated under existing contracts.”
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