Informed 07 Campaign


Stolen words: Meta’s copyright infringements


Last month, an investigation by Te Atlantic into Meta’s use of the Library Genesis (Lib Gen) dataset revealed deliberate, unlawful scraping of copyright-protected works to train its artificial intelligence model Llama 3. Condemnation from the NUJ and authors over the flagrant breach called for greater enforcement of copyright law to ensure developers of artificial intelligence technologies are held accountable for their infringements. Important to note, is that revelations that the LibGen dataset had been used by Meta, were only discovered following publication of court documents detailing comments made by the company’s employees. “Te problem is that people don’t realize that if we license one single book, we won’t be able to lean into fair use strategy” was reportedly said by a director of engineering at the company, to avoid pursuing the ethical route of seeking consent and remuneration for works used in the model.


Another Llama team senior manager’s comments of licensing seeming


“unreasonably expensive” will surprise authors and rightsholders across the creative industries, who recognise the excessive profits tech giants amass, yet seemingly pick and choose what they are happy to pay for regarding the operation of their AI models. Creators have opposed the ‘fair use’ argument put forward repeatedly by AI developers, clearly an atempt to evade responsibility and avoid paying rightsholders fairly for their creative, informative and valuable work scraped to train and develop technologies. Last year, Meta’s platforms generated in excess of $160billion, yet a lack of enforcement by policymakers and governments has meant its poor practices, alongside other tech giants have continued at the expense of creators. Authors of books in the LibGen have


brought a copyright-infringement lawsuit against Meta; as many monitor developments, there is frustration that insufficient action is being taken to support authors who face an uphill batle against developers over their intellectual property.


It is unclear which parts of LibGen


were used by the technology company to train Llama 3, but it is also believed Open AI has previously used the library. Te company states “Te models powering ChatGPT and our API today were not developed using these datasets. Tese datasets, created by former employees who are no longer with OpenAI, were last used in 2021.” Laura Davison, NUJ general secretary, said: “Meta’s copyright infringements are a blatant disregard for authors’ rights and will continue at scale unless tech giants face consequences for their actions, through enforceable legislative and regulatory standards. We need greater enforcement of copyright law to ensure the works of authors, journalists and freelance creators are protected.” Te NUJ has raised the issue with its


Parliamentary Group and continues to campaign alongside stakeholders on AI more broadly, including through the Creative Rights In AI coalition. Following confirmation from Rachel Reeves, Chancellor of the Exchequer, that there are “ongoing talks” about amendments to the Digital Services Tax, the NUJ published a statement condemning any reduction in the 2 per cent levy tech giants must pay. No confirmation was announced in the Spring Statement.


Prince Harry victory over NGN


Prince Harry and Lord Watson won a landmark victory against News Group Newspapers over unlawful information gathering. An out of court setlement was agreed just before a trial was due to begin at the High Court in January. NGN issued a “full and unequivocal” apology to Prince Harry over “serious” intrusions into his private life for 15 years from 1996


and acknowledged unlawful activities had been carried out by private investigators working for Te Sun. It did not extend the apology to the newspaper’s journalists, but did admit News of the World journalists and private investigators were involved in unlawful phone hacking, surveillance and misusing private information. Te apology included Princess Diana, recognising she had also been unlawfully targeted.


Persistence pays at Business Insider Pay negotiations are due to begin at Business Insider, which signed a Statutory Recognition Agreement with the union last April aſter two years of recruitment and organising at the company’s London bureau. Te journey began in late 2021 when a couple of Insider staff contacted the NUJ. Reps did a fantastic job of growing awareness


within the company. Te NUJ was unable to reach a voluntary agreement with the employer but persevered, with a statutory request to the Central Arbitration Commitee. Recognition was formalised and in the first round of pay negotiations the NUJ struck an agreement for a 3.75% rise – showing the capacity and power of being part of a union. Members elsewhere will hope to replicate this success.


Page 1  |  Page 2  |  Page 3  |  Page 4  |  Page 5  |  Page 6  |  Page 7  |  Page 8  |  Page 9  |  Page 10  |  Page 11  |  Page 12