[Air-L] Academic authors 'shocked' after Taylor & Francis sells access to their research to Microsoft AI

[Richard Forno]

https://www.thebookseller.com/news/academic-authors-shocked-after-taylor--francis-sells-access-to-their-research-to-microsoft-ai

Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors’ research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year.

The agreement with Microsoft was included in a trading update by the publisher’s parent company in May this year. However, academics published by the group claim they have not been told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment for the use of their research by the tech company. 

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When contacted by The Bookseller, Taylor & Francis said it is "protecting the integrity of our authors’ work and limits on verbatim text reproduction, as well as authors’ rights to receive royalty payments in accordance with their author contracts".

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Earlier this week the Copyright Clearance Centre announced the availability of AI re-use rights within its Annual Copyright License (ACL) — which it claims is "the first-ever collective licensing solution for the internal use of copyrighted materials in AI systems." The license will provides holders with rights and remuneration for new uses of their content.

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https://www.thebookseller.com/news/academic-authors-shocked-after-taylor--francis-sells-access-to-their-research-to-microsoft-ai