Authors call for UK government to hold Meta accountable for copyright infringement | Books | The Guardian

A group of prominent authors including Richard Osman, Kazuo Ishiguro, Kate Mosse and Val McDermid have signed an open letter calling on the UK government to hold Meta accountable over its use of copyrighted books to train artificial intelligence.

The letter asked Lisa Nandy, the secretary of state for culture, media and sport, to summon Meta senior executives to parliament.

"There is a longstanding contractual obligation that when third parties make use of an author's work they compensate us," said McDermid when asked why she signed the letter. "Adaptation, translation, photocopying - they all accept the duty to recompense us for making their work possible.

"I'm a crime writer - I understand theft when I see it. And by using pirated material, Meta are stealing from us twice over. I don't think it's at all surprising that we're outraged."