On this episode of the Self-Publishing with ALLi podcast, Dan Holloway reports on the Anthropic class action hearing, where the judge will decide if the database of pirated titles is clear enough for authors to check their inclusion. He also highlights a new “Really Sensible Licensing” system for AI use of creative works, audiobook revenues overtaking e-books in monthly reports, and Disney Plus joining with Webtoon as graphic novels gain ground both online and in bookstores.
Listen to the Podcast: Judge Reviews Anthropic Piracy Case
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About the Host
Dan Holloway is a novelist, poet, and spoken word artist. He is the MC of the performance arts show The New Libertines, He competed at the National Poetry Slam final at the Royal Albert Hall. His latest collection, The Transparency of Sutures, is available on Kindle.
Read the Transcript
Dan Holloway: Hello and welcome to another Self-Publishing News podcast. As I speak, this is a podcast that may or may not be updated before it goes on air.
If it is not, then please do check out the latest column as and when it appears, because I will be updating everyone on how they can find out whether your book is part of the class action in the Anthropic case.
As soon as we know any details from the court hearing, which is taking place on the 25th of September in the US, that's Friday, the 25th of September.
What is being decided is whether the judge is satisfied with the list of books that make up the class in the class action, and whether the judge is also satisfied that it is easy enough for authors to ascertain whether or not they're part of the class.
So, is the database that has been provided in the few days since the judge ruled that he was not satisfied with the settlement, as it had reached him, that was a fortnight ago. In the fortnight since, the plaintiff's attorneys have been sent away to come up with a database of all the books that they believe are in the class, and that database needs to be searchable. We expect to hear something on the 25th of September.
Whatever I hear, I will update you, probably not in this podcast, it will probably go out slightly before I'm able, with time differences, to get that to Howard. But I will get a column out as soon as I know what the details are. And in that column, if everything has gone according to plan, I will explain how you can search the database for your title.
We have been assured from various places that you do not need to have registered your book as being potentially part of the class for it to count as part of the class. The plaintiffs are confident that they are able to come up with a list of all the books that satisfy the criteria of having been downloaded illegally from Pirate Library Mirror and Library Genesis, and also satisfy the criteria of having been registered in a timely fashion with the US Copyright Office.
So, that is the major news this week. Not necessarily news that I can bring you on this podcast, but news I can bring you to make sure you look out for the next column to go up on the Self-Publishing News on the ALLi website, because it will contain everything you need to know.
AI Licensing and Creative Commons
Dan Holloway: While we are still on the subject of AI, an interesting thing, and thanks to Gee Gonzalez, who is a very old and dear friend of mine from the book world, who now does fantastic things in libraries. I first met him more than 16 years ago now through the indie scene and slam poetry scene, and Gee has been a friend of indies and a key player in raising the profile of indie authors for many years.
He pointed to a really interesting article on Medium about, what I can best describe as creative commons for AI. That is, it's a way of creating a license through a number of templates, by entering key information, that you can then attach to your online materials, which will tell tech firms, and in particular which will have the suitable metadata to tell their bots what you are allowing them to do with your data, what you are not allowing them to do with your data, and what they need to come and talk to you more about before they do with your data or your creative works.
So, rather like Creative Commons, you can choose whether you require attribution. So, to be credited in the form of a link back and whether there's a straightforward block: no, don't use my material. Or whether you would be willing to enter into a negotiation for paid use of your material to train an AI large language model or other generative AI model.
And if you choose to enter into a negotiation, there is a way of pointing any bots that are on the lookout to contact details where they can get in touch with you and start the negotiation process.
As I say, to that extent, it works a lot like Creative Commons where you have a number of dropdown options, you decide for each of them what you want to do and what sort of permissions you want to give, and what conditions you want to place. Then as a result of that, what comes out as a certificate that makes those things clear to anyone who is reading, and in this case, to bots that may be reading.
It's called, Really Sensible Licensing. Medium are going to be using it to create the AI license for their own platform. So, that in itself is newsworthy because lots of us use Medium. We use it for long-form content. We might use it for either journalistic articles or for placing our newsletters after we've sent them out, or we might use it for book extracts or so on.
Medium have decided not to insist upon payment, and the reason they give for this is that it is too difficult to identify the authors of each individual piece because they are a single platform, whereas the rights holders are individual rights holders, and that would be too difficult, they say, but they are insisting on link back attribution.
So, if you want more than attribution for your work from any AI platform that uses it, then that's something to think about if you are posting on Medium.
StatShot Report: Audiobooks vs. eBooks
Dan Holloway: In the news also, we have had more figures from StatShot. What we have learned from StatShot is that digital books, in terms of eBooks and audiobooks, in theory, are now neck and neck, at least in the US market.
For the first time, I think in the month of June, it is alleged that audiobooks brought in $88 million revenue, eBooks brought in $86 million. Making it, as I say, I think the first time that audiobooks have actually overtaken eBooks.
But looking at year to date figures, that's the half year up to the end of June, both are around 500 million for each.
So, it really is level pegging. Obviously, that's interesting. It's interesting that audiobooks continue to grow at pace, but the caveats remain that always do around eBooks and the reporting of income from eBooks, that the StatShot survey only captures books that are trackable by ISBN. It doesn't capture books that only have an ASIN; so, anything that you've put straight to Amazon without an ISBN.
Nor does it capture income from KDP Select, which is almost the same as the rest of the eBook income put together. So, it's usually 50 something million dollars a month from KDP Select. They're reporting the whole of eBook income as $88 million or $86 million.
Obviously, the figures are not complete, but it is still interesting that audiobooks are catching up.
What else has crossed my eye?
Disney Plus and Webtoon Collaboration
Dan Holloway: Another interesting thing that crossed the desk this week is the news of a new platform that's coming from Disney Plus and Webtoon.
Webtoon is the massive platform owned by the Korean software company, Nava. It is a huge platform used by many indies for graphic novel formats, specifically the Webtoon format, the single scrolling pane format of graphic novel and graphic storytelling.
So, Disney Plus have taken a 2% stake, I think, in Webtoon, and they are going to be launching a platform that gives access to 35,000 of the comics they have rights to through that platform. This includes Marvel and Star Wars, and there is the possibility that this could generate significantly more traffic to the format. So, the online comic book and the novel format, and Webtoon specifically as a platform.
So, that's potentially exciting for the tens of thousands of indie authors who are present on Webtoon, and is more confirmation that this is a format that continues to do really well.
I've spent a lot of time in bookstores in big cities in the UK of late, and one thing I have noticed is the huge amount of floor space that is increasingly being given to graphic novels. So, it's not just in digital format, it's in print format as well. This is an area that really is taking off.
It's also an area where we know that the indies do a lot of really cool stuff. So, it's very exciting to see this growth both online and in the physical world of a format that we don't see enough of being reported. So, I'm trying to do my bit by at least reporting a little on it, and I look forward to reporting more and reporting on some real breakout indie successes in the month and years ahead. As I say, I may update, if I get a chance to update this before it goes live, with news from the lawsuit. If not, it will certainly be in next week's podcast, but also, the moment I am able to post a column, I will do so.
It won't necessarily be going out on the regular Saturday time; it will be going out as soon as I'm able to get it to Howard following the announcement from the courts.
With that, I bid you a fair last weekend in September, and I look forward to speaking to you soon.
