Authors Alliance

In celebration of Open Access Week UNCW is hosting a talk from Eric Harbeson, Scholarly Publishing Legal Fellow at Authors Alliance, on changes to research funders' public access policies and how those changes interact with institutional and publisher policies. Join us!

uncw.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

AI, Authorship, and the Public Interest Grant Recipients We’re delighted to announce the five recipients of our AI, Authorship, and the Public Interest grant awards. Chosen from a competitive pool of over 160 proposals, these grantees stood out for their…

We’re delighted to announce the recipients of our AI, Authorship, and the Public Interest grant awards. Chosen from a competitive pool of over 160 proposals, these grantees stood out for their thoughtful, innovative projects that align with our mission to serve the public interest.

Part will also go to continued membership in @authorsalliance.bsky.social, who are fighting to ensure that our collective knowledge can be used fairly and for public benefit.

Authors Alliance Files Amicus Brief in Thomson Reuters v. Ross Yesterday Authors Alliance filed an amicus brief in Thomson Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence, the long-running lawsuit between Thomson Reuters, owner of Westlaw (a legal research platform) and ROSS Int…

Yesterday we filed an amicus brief in Reuters v. ROSS Intelligence. Though the suit is different in many ways from other AI lawsuits, this one is significant because it is the first time a US Circuit Court will have the opportunity to directly address the applicability of fair use to AI training.

Cover of the book "Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture" by Jennifer Jenkins, featuring comicbook-style panels.

Podcast cover for Episode #10 of "Future Knowledge" titled "Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture." The design features portraits of the guests—Jennifer Jenkins & James Boyle—side by side. Surrounding them are collage-style retro-futuristic elements, including a classical statue head, a vintage computer with the word "NEW" on its screen, a modernist observation tower, and abstract architectural shapes. The title uses bold, blocky typography, giving the cover a vintage sci-fi aesthetic.

🎼 From sampling to streaming, copyright touches every part of modern music.

Jennifer Jenkins & James Boyle explore this & more in MUSIC COPYRIGHT, CREATIVITY, AND CULTURE on the Future Knowledge #podcast.

🎧 Listen to all episodes ⤵️
futureknowledge.transistor.fm

@authorsalliance.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: IMLS and DOE Policy Overview & FAQ Webcast. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. On October 1 at 2pm ET / 11am PT, SPARC and Authors Alliance will co-host a webcast providing an overview of the IMLS publication and data sharing policies and the Department of Energy’s data sharing ...

Tomorrow, Wed., Oct. 1, at 2 pm ET, tune into our free webcast about new publication and data sharing policies at IMLS & Dep.t of Energy. The event is co-hosted w/ @authorsalliance.bsky.social. Register now: sparcopen-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

CONTRACTUAL OVERRIDE | The Copyright Society How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It

Check out the article @rachaelgs.bsky.social wrote with
@authorsalliance.bsky.social. It explores how academic researchers & libraries are navigating private contracts that override key copyright exceptions meant to protect research, teaching, and innovation. copyrightsociety.org/journal-entr...

Upcoming Events | OCEAN

This fall semester, we and Open Copyright Education Advisory Network (OCEAN) are co-hosting a Discussion Series on AI and its implications professionals working in libraries, archives and museums and for authors, artists, scholars, researchers who work with them.

More info and registration here:

Bartz v Anthropic Settlement Gets Preliminary Approval – Key Takeaways On Thursday, Judge Alsup of the Northern District of California granted preliminary approval of a settlement in the class action lawsuit brought against Anthropic by three book authors whose books …

The Anthropic book settlement received preliminary approval from Judge Alsup last week, with some important new details addressed about how the $1.5 billion settlement will be divvied up among authors and publishers. This post highlights some key points.

Grid of promotional tiles for Future Knowledge podcast episodes one through nine.

🎙️ Have you listened to the Future Knowledge #podcast from #InternetArchive + @AuthorsAlliance.bsky.social ?

Catch up on past episodes & get ready for a new one this week!

🎧 Listen & subscribe wherever you get your podcasts ⤵️
futureknowledge.transistor.fm

@Archive.org

Beyond the Exception: Licensing, Access, and the Realities of Text and Data Mining in the US, UK, and Singapore This is a post by Syn Ong, AI Policy Researcher at Authors Alliance. Authors increasingly rely on text and data mining (TDM) to analyze large corpora across disciplines. Our new working paper, Beyo…

Authors increasingly rely on text data mining to analyze large corpora. Our new working paper, "Beyond the Exception: Licensing, Access, and the Realities of Text and Data Mining in the US, UK, and Singapore", finds that formal legal permissions alone do not secure usable access for TDM research.

Podcast cover for Episode #10 of "Future Knowledge" titled "Music Copyright, Creativity, and Culture." The design features portraits of the guests—Jennifer Jenkins & James Boyle—side by side. Surrounding them are collage-style retro-futuristic elements, including a classical statue head, a vintage computer with the word "NEW" on its screen, a modernist observation tower, and abstract architectural shapes. The title uses bold, blocky typography, giving the cover a vintage sci-fi aesthetic.

🎶 The music you love? Copyright shaped how it was written, recorded, shared, & remixed.

Jennifer Jenkins, author of MUSIC COPYRIGHT, CREATIVITY, AND CULTURE, joins James Boyle on the Future Knowledge #podcast to discuss.

🎧 Listen & subscribe ⤵️
futureknowledge.transistor.fm

@dukelaw.bsky.social

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: IMLS and DOE Policy Overview & FAQ Webcast. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. On October 1 at 2pm ET / 11am PT, SPARC and Authors Alliance will co-host a webcast providing an overview of the IMLS publication and data sharing policies and the Department of Energy’s data sharing ...

Next Wed., Oct. 1, at 2 pm ET, learn about IMLS publication & data sharing policies, plus info on the Dept. of Energy’s data sharing policy. We will co-host a webcast w/ @authorsalliance.bsky.social open to anyone working at academic institutions. Register now! sparcopen-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Can't make it to the live talk? Go ahead & register to receive a link to the recording!

Are Copyright Anxiety and Legal Chill Hampering Your Work? The Scream (1893) by Edvard Munch This is guest post by Amanda Wakaruk, Jane Secker, and Chris Morrison. Amanda Wakaruk has worked as a copyright librarian since 2015 and is currently the Acting He…

How confident are authors about their rights related to copyright? Is the fear of navigating copyright preventing non-infringing ‘user’ activities? How can we mitigate the damage caused by copyright anxiety and chill?

A guest post by @awakaruk.bsky.social, @jsecker.bsky.social, and Chris Morrison:

Podcast cover for Episode #9 of "Future Knowledge" titled "Preserving Government Information." The design features portraits of the three guests—James Jacobs, Jim Jacobs & Shari Laster—arranged in a grid. Surrounding them are collage-style retro-futuristic elements, including a classical statue head, a vintage computer with the word "NEW" on its screen, a modernist observation tower, and abstract architectural shapes. The title uses bold, blocky typography, giving the cover a vintage sci-fi aesthetic.

What happens to democracy when government records vanish?

James Jacobs, Jim Jacobs, & Shari Laster discuss how libraries, archivists & advocates protect public access in the latest Future Knowledge #podcast, PRESERVING GOVERNMENT INFORMATION.

🎧 Listen: futureknowledge.transistor.fm

A big thanks to everyone who came out to "Who Shapes the Future of AI? Open Models, Academic Institutions, and the Importance of Noncommercial Innovation" with Jack Bernard at University of Michigan's Center for Academic Innovation today.

The Anthropic Settlement – what it is and isn’t (and who could get paid) www.anthropiccopyrightsettlement.com EDIT: On Sunday evening, Judge Alsup granted the motion for a hearing on Monday, September 8th, but expressed disappointment over lack of details, mostly on the…

Anthropic’s copyright settlement is historic, but it’s also not what many authors and publishers think. Check out our latest on what’s inside the proposed settlement:

Bartz v. Anthropic: A Preliminary Look at What LibGen Books May Be Included in the Class Action The LibGen Logo For this post, we relied heavily on the help of Charles Horn, self-described “metadata wrangler,” for data analysis.  As readers are likely aware, the Bartz v. Anthropic AI law…

Bartz v. Anthropic has had a couple of major developments. Though the lawsuit was initially brought to address the legality of using copyrighted materials for training AI, the suit now focuses on Anthropic’s storage—without training use—of copies of books downloaded from LibGen and PiLiMi.

This episode was such a hard hitting one. We take for granted our access to books, especially old books, but the fact that these books had to survive wars, fires, natural disasters, and book purges, it is nothing less than a miracle we still have some of these texts

Dave Hansen discusses the need for more investment in open-access journals that don’t charge fees to either authors or readers, and more, in this piece on rising publishing fees in response to federal public access policies:

Cover of the book Preserving Government Information: Past Present, and Future, by James A, Jacobs and James R. Jacobs.

📢 It's not too late! Join us TOMORROW for PRESERVING GOVERNMENT INFORMATION—an urgent #booktalk on the fight to keep public records accessible.

📅 Aug 28
🕙 10 AM PT / 1 PM ET
📍 ONLINE
🎟️ www.eventbrite.com/e/1513557303...

@authorsalliance.bsky.social #InternetArchive @Archive.org

BIG news - Anthropic says it has come to terms with the Bartz plaintiffs on a settlement in their class action AI copyright suit

Resources on Copyright and AI: Updated FAQ and Position Paper on “Lawful Access” and Fair Use Rayne Zaayman-Gallant / EMBL, CC-BY-NC-ND 4.0 Authors are navigating change when it comes to copyright and artificial intelligence. We’re committed to developing and sharing practical resources tha…

Authors are navigating frequent change when it comes to copyright and artificial intelligence. We’ve recently finished two resources that address some of the questions we’ve been seeing most frequently: an updated FAQ on Generative AI and a new position paper, Lawful Access and Fair Use.

Promotional image. Features photos of James Jacobs, Jim Jacobs, and Shari Laster, the cover of the book Preserving Government Information: Past Present, and Future, and the logos of the Internet Archive and Authors Alliance. Text on image reads: Book Talk. Preserving Government Information, with James Jacobs, Jim Jacobs, and Shari Laster. August 28th, 10 am Pacific Time, 1 pm Eastern Time. Online. Join us for a timely conversation with librarians James Jacobs and Jim Jacobs about safeguarding public information in the digital age. Librarian Shari Laster will guide our discussion.

THIS WEEK: Join us for PRESERVING GOVERNMENT INFORMATION: a vital #booktalk on public access & digital threats, co-hosted by @Auths_Alliance. 📖

📅 Thurs Aug 28
🕙 10 AM PT /1 PM ET
📍 ONLINE
🎟️ www.eventbrite.com/e/1513557303...

#opengov #libraries

Contractual Override: How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It We’ve written before about the use of contracts limiting author’s access to fair use, including how publisher contracts restrict innovation by undermining scholarly AI research.  Though contra…

We’re pleased to share a draft of our paper, “Contractual Override: How Private Contracts Undermine the Goals of the Copyright Act for Libraries and Researchers, and What We Can Do About It”. We are especially grateful to @rachaelgs.bsky.social for co-authoring this paper with us.

Welcome! You are invited to join a webinar: Federal Agency Data Sharing Policy Overview & FAQ. After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the webinar. On August 20th at 1pm ET / 10am PT, we will host a webcast focusing on agency data sharing requirements. This event will provide an overview of key elements of agency data sharing requirements and all...

Coming up tomorrow, Wed. Aug. 20 @ 1 pm Eastern: A free webinar w/ @authorsalliance.bsky.social on new federal agency data sharing requirements. Submit ?s in advance, if you'd like. It's not too late to register! sparcopen-org.zoom.us/webinar/regi...

Reminder to Support Authors Alliance So far this year, Authors Alliance has worked tirelessly to ensure that the voices of authors who write to advance the public good are heard in debates over laws, policies, and practices that affec…

Authors Alliance’s existence is not guaranteed. We depend on your support to work on behalf of authors who write to share new insights and advance human knowledge. Consider donating to help us provide another year of services, resources, and advocacy.

When Your Publisher Isn’t the Dream Partner You Hoped For — What Counts as Material Breach of a Publishing Agreement? This is a guest post by Hana Khan-Tareen, who is a Legal Research Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center. We appreciate her insight on how authors can best protect their rights.

A guest post by Hana Khan-Tareen, Legal Research Fellow at Georgetown University Law Center, on what happens when, after entering into a publishing agreement, the relationship between a publisher and author turns sour:

Podcast cover for Episode #7 of "Future Knowledge" titled "In Through the Side Door." The design features a portrait of a woman with glasses and wavy blonde hair (likely Lila Bailey), along with collage-style imagery including a vintage computer labeled "NEW," a classical statue head, modernist buildings, and a stylized observation tower. Guests listed, along with their photographs, are Erin Malone and Abby Covert. Bold typography and retro-futuristic visuals create a vintage sci-fi aesthetic.

In the latest Future Knowledge #podcast, IN THROUGH THE SIDE DOOR, author & UI designer @ErinMalone.bsky.social joins designer Abby Covert to spotlight the women who shaped UX, from the dawn of desktop computing to today.

🎧 Listen & subscribe ⤵️
futureknowledge.transistor.fm/episodes/in-...