Publishers Join with Worldwide Coalition to Condemn the Theft of Creative and Intellectual Authorship by Tech Companies for Generative AI Training

On October 22, 2024, the Association of American Publishers (AAP) joined forces with more than 10,000 creators and coalition partners, including authors, musicians, actors, artists, and photographers, to condemn the theft of creative and intellectual authorship by big tech companies for use in their Generative AI models. The AAP released the following statement and are calling on authors and authoring organizations to sign it:

“The unlicensed use of creative works for training generative AI is a major, unjust threat to the livelihoods of the people behind those works, and must not be permitted.” 

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TAA Featured in Podcast on Legal Use of Textbook Images in Teaching Materials

Watch a new episode of The A&P Professor podcast featuring a chat with TAA Board Secretary and intellectual property attorney Brenda Ulrich from Archstone Law about the legal use of textbook images in teaching materials. One of the breaks in this episode encourages listeners to check out TAA membership.

The A&P Professor podcast, for anatomy & physiology faculty, is hosted by award-winning A&P professor & author Dr. Kevin Patton, who is also past-president of TAA.

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Second Circuit Rules Against Internet Archive in Copyright Case

On September 4, 2024, the US Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit ruled against the Internet Archive (IA) in the copyright infringement case, Hachette v. Internet Archive, upholding a March 2023 district court ruling that AI’s lending practices violated copyright law.

IA had argued that its digital lending practices were fair use, but the district court ruled in favor of the publishers, which included Hachette, HarperCollins, Penguin Random House, and Wiley, who filed the initial suit in June 2020. Here’s a detailed look at the decision by Wired, “The Internet Archive Loses Its Appeal of a Major Copyright Case.”

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Supreme Court Sides With Respondents in Copyright Case

On May 9, 2024, the Supreme Court sided with the respondents in a 6-3 decision in favor of an amicus brief filed in the case of Warner Chappell Music, Inc. et. al v. Nealy et. al. “The Court held that, assuming the discovery rule applies, there is no separate three-year limit on the damages a copyright plaintiff can recover under the Copyright Act,” said Attorney Nathan E. Denning, from Wiggin and Dana LLP, who filed the brief.

TAA had joined with five other author groups on the amicus brief, which was filed on January 12, 2024 in support of the respondents, and argued whether under the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations rule, and the “discovery accrual rule” plaintiffs in copyright infringement cases “can recover damages for acts that allegedly occurred more than three years before the filing of a lawsuit.”

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TAA Featured in Episode of The A&P Professor Podcast

TAA was featured in an episode of The A&P Professor podcast on April 12, “Pulse of Progress, Looking Back, Moving Forward,” with host Kevin Patton, an award-winning anatomy and physiology textbook author. Kevin’s comments about the benefits of TAA membership and invitation to attend TAA’s 2024 Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring come in at 50:22.

In the episode, Kevin says: “With a strongly supportive network of colleagues, TAA provides many resources and active, engaging opportunities for growth and network-forming. TAA meets the needs of those interested in creating textbooks, lab manuals, workbooks, and other learning resources, as well as those who focus on academic writing, such as journal articles, dissertations/theses, monographs, and scholarly or other nonfiction works.”

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TAA Joins Five Other Author Groups in Support of Respondents in Supreme Court Copyright Case

The Textbook & Academic Authors Association (TAA) joined with five other author groups to file an amicus brief in support of the respondents in a U.S. Supreme Court lawsuit arguing whether under the Copyright Act’s statute of limitations rule, and the “discovery accrual rule” plaintiffs in copyright infringement cases “can recover damages for acts that allegedly occurred more than three years before the filing of a lawsuit.”

The “discovery rule” means that the statute of limitations starts running from the date the infringement is discovered rather than from the date the infringement occurred. This means that even if a work was infringed 10 years ago, if I discovered it today, I would have the next three years to decide whether to bring a claim. The question in this case is: even if the infringement happened ten years ago and I discovered it today, could I still recover damages for the infringement that occurred ten years ago?

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