UK Authors Slam Meta for Copyright Violations, Demand Government Response

Top authors, including Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse, and Val McDermid, have signed an open letter urging the UK government to hold Meta accountable for using copyrighted books to train AI.

The letter calls AI book scraping illegal in the UK and urges Culture Secretary Lisa Nandy to summon Meta executives to Parliament.

A court filing earlier this year claimed Meta CEO Mark Zuckerberg approved using LibGen, a "shadow library" with over 7.5 million books.

On 20 March, The Atlantic republished a searchable database of LibGen’s titles, revealing to many authors that their works may have been used without consent.

Authors, the letter argues, face huge costs and legal hurdles in fighting back, yet, tech giants like Meta continue unchecked.

The Society of Authors (SoA) published the letter as a petition on Change.org, gathering nearly 5,000 signatures.