Book publisher Penguin Random House expresses its stance on AI training in print. The standard copyright page for new and reprinted books now states: “No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any way for the purpose of training artificial intelligence technologies or systems,” according to a report by The bookseller discovered by Gizmodo.
The clause also notes that Penguin Random House “expressly excludes this work from the text and data mining exception,” in accordance with European Union laws. The bookseller says that Penguin Random House appears to be the first major publisher to address 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 modified page is somewhat similar to Penguin Random House's version of a robots.txt file that websites sometimes use Use this option to ask AI companies and others not to scrape their content. But robots.txt is not a legal mechanism; It is a norm adopted voluntarily on the Internet. Copyright protection exists regardless of whether the copyright page is included at the front of the book, and fair use and other defenses (if applicable!) exist even if the copyright holder indicates so.
The edge Penguin contacted Random House for more information but did not immediately receive a response.
In August, Penguin Random House released a statement saying the publisher would “vigorously defend the intellectual property of our authors and artists.” Not all book publishers are cautious about AI, with academic publishers such as Wiley, Oxford University Press and Taylor & Francis already having AI training contracts.