Penguin Random House books now clearly say no to AI training

Book publisher Penguin Random House presents its position on artificial intelligence training in print. The standard copyright page on both modern and reprinted books will now state: “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any way for the training of artificial intelligence technologies or systems,” it claims. report from Bookseller spotted By Gizmodo.

The clause also notes that Penguin Random House “expressly reserves this work to the text and data mining exception” under European Union law. Bookseller that says it Penguin Random House appears to be the first major publisher to include AI on its copyright page.

What is printed on this page may be a warning shot, but it also has little to do with actual copyright law. The changed page somewhat resembles a version of the robots.txt file published by Penguin Random House that websites sometimes utilize to ask AI companies and others not to remove their content. However, robots.txt is not a legal mechanism; it is a voluntarily accepted norm on the Internet. Copyright protection exists regardless of whether a copyright page appears at the front of the book, and fair utilize and other protections (if applicable!) also exist even if the rights holder claims they do not.

Edge contacted Penguin Random House for more information but did not immediately receive a response.

In August, Penguin Random House published a statement saying the publisher will “strongly defend the intellectual property belonging to our authors and artists.” Not all book publishers approach AI with caution, as academic publishers like to do Wiley, Oxford University PressAND Taylor and Francis have already concluded artificial intelligence training agreements.