Back in March, I started seeing links to the Atlantic article allowing writers to see if their work had been pirated by LibGen and then used by Meta to train their AI program. I doubted that any of my work was in that database, due to its comparatively low popularity on Amazon and other bookselling sites, but I checked anyway.
Friends, nothing prepares you for the gut-punch that is learning your creative work has been stolen to train a so-called “artificial intelligence” program (which in reality is nothing more than applied statistics, nothing “intelligent” about it). It’s hard enough knowing your work has been pirated; far worse is knowing that said pirating is being used in a way that is destructive to all human creativity and for no other purpose but to put yet more money in a billionaire’s pocket.
Both Magic Most Deadly and Glamours & Gunshots came up in the LibGen database. Two books that I poured my heart and soul into to try to tell the story in the truest and most faithful way I could. Ripped off to plug words and phrases into a computer program in an attempt to mimic genuine creative work but has no soul or mind behind it.
I am not ok with this.
As a result of this violation of my work, I have deactivated my accounts with Meta. You will no longer be able to find me on FB or IG. I don’t have accounts with any other social media sites, so the only place to find me from now on will be here on my website, or via my newsletter.
Conventional wisdom says that authors can’t make it these days without a social media platform. Maybe that’s true–but I can’t stomach tacitly supporting this kind of destructive work. (My daughters are delighted by this choice–they keep telling me all that they’ve learned about how invasive and harmful social media is, and have been trying to get me off of all of those sites for ages now.)
As for my own work–I can’t do anything about what’s already been taken from me. But I’m not letting that stop me from continuing to create. I hit 100 pages in the handwritten draft of Whitney & Davies #4 last week, and am excited about where the story is going. When the time comes, I will publish this book as well. I will include something in the copyright about not using this work for AI training, which may not stop such things from happening but at least puts more laws on my side.
We keep going, friends. That’s all we can do.
You are a brave one, my friend! The mother of one of L’s schoolmates (not close friends) also had her work stolen. I don’t believe she has left her socials, although I do not follow her work. Social media can do so many good things, like introduce friends whom you would never have met otherwise, but there’s also always the darker side where your posts can be used for things for which you haven’t given permission.
We are at a point in life where soon, L will need at least an Instagram account if she wishes to be recruited to play ball in college. I have actually encouraged her to get a teen account not to post right now, but to follow school and her students’ group at church. She has resisted so far, which is good. It’s funny that school is 100% no phones, but only posts sports schedules on socials. The same goes for the Students’ group, which makes announcements on socials. It is so difficult to navigate what to do with kids!
I share the professional-quality photos I take at L’s tournaments with our team in a Lightroom gallery where they can download what they want for free. Your dealings with piracy have reminded me to add copyright and other info to each photo’s metadata. It’s not that I’m looking to make money off of them, but I don’t want them stolen either.
Now, to the notebooks. I received my first LEUCHTTURM 1917 notebook in a beautiful Murdy Creative journal B gave me for Christmas. Oh, how I love it! I told him it was probably one of the best gifts he’s ever given me. I use it for journaling most every day, including keeping up with L’s migraine days. I filled the first up in two months and just ordered three new, more colorful inserts yesterday. Two are in L’s favorite colors, so I would not be surprised if she steals one! She has already taken possession of a blank one I accidentally ordered instead of ruled. She’s very creative but doesn’t want us to know it.
Anyway, you inspire me. Your bravery, your determination, all of it, inspires me to put pen to paper (which can be painful at this age!).