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

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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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2025 TAA Virtual Conference on Textbook & Academic Authoring Call for Proposals Now Open

The TAA Conference Committee invites proposals for its 2025 Textbook & Academic Authoring Conference, which will be held online June 6-7. Presenting at TAA’s 2025 Conference provides an opportunity to share your knowledge, experiences, and ideas with other textbook authors, academic authors, and industry professionals. The theme is “The Future is Now.” We welcome proposals from first-time and veteran presenters! The deadline for submitting a proposal is October 13, 2024.

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Plagiarism vs Copyright: What’s the Difference?

By Brenda Ulrich

When someone copies your work without your permission, is that plagiarism or copyright infringement?  These terms are often used interchangeably, but in fact they do not mean the same thing.

Plagiarism is passing off someone else’s ideas or work as your own, without proper credit. But there may be no direct copying involved – it could just be paraphrasing an idea from someone else’s publication.  The main offense is the failure to provide attribution. Plagiarism is not illegal, but it is certainly an offense in academia, often with severe academic consequences, e.g., a failing grade for a student, revocation of a job offer, and so forth.

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What Can You Do If Your Work Is Plagiarized?

By Sierra Pawlak

During the July 2024 TAA Conversation Circle on the topic of plagiarism, Micki Caskey, a Professor Emerita at Portland State University, shared her experience with having her work plagiarized.

“It was a shock to me that my work had been taken,” she said. “The reason I cared is because I worked really hard on that project. This was work I had committed a lot of intellectual space to, and I just was aghast that someone would take it. It’s not that I am the greatest author in the world, I just would like to be credited for the work that I’ve done.”

Caskey discovered her work had been plagiarized in 2021 when she went to update a piece she originally wrote in 2007 and had updated in 2014, a research summary on the developmental characteristics of young adolescents.

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