Sir,—I am writing to draw the attention of your readers, and especially your contributors, to a serious problem. Recently The Atlantic magazine conducted an investigation into the activities of Meta, the social media company, and how it built up its database of texts to train its flagship AI model, Llama 3. This is used not just for its chatbots but also for its Library Genesis (LibGen) project, a collection of published texts. According to The Atlantic, Meta is copying millions of printed works such as books and articles, fiction and non-fiction, without the permission of the authors and certainly without payment.
I was alerted to this situation by the Irish Writers’ Union (IWU). When I typed my name into The Atlantic’s search engine, theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/, I discovered that almost every article I wrote over decades, including those for History Ireland and Books Ireland, had been copied by Meta. At no point was I contacted to ask for my permission. When I typed in ‘Tommy Graham’, all of Tommy’s work (including his editorials) was there too.
I advise writers to look up The Atlantic’s search engine to ascertain whether their work has also been pirated. For further information on what you can do if your work has been copied, contact the IWU, which is spearheading the campaign against this piracy in Ireland. The IWU committee handed in a petition signed by over a thousand writers to the Department of Trade on Kildare Street, Dublin, on Thursday 17 April 2025.
This is a serious violation of the rights of authors at a time when the written word is under attack and AI-generated content threatens their livelihoods. Action must be taken to protect the integrity of printed work and the rights of authors.—Yours etc.,
TONY CANAVAN
Former compiler of Museum Eye
and editor of Books Ireland
The Wordwell Group, including History Ireland, supports Publishing Ireland’s statement condemning the alleged unauthorised use of copyright material of Irish authors by Meta, and calls on the Irish government and the EU to uphold copyright law. Full statement here: https://www.publishingireland.com/reports-of-wholesale-copyright-theft-by-meta/.