On this episode of the Self-Publishing News Podcast, Dan Holloway reports on Libby’s new Inspire Me discovery tool, which promises to boost book discoverability but has raised concerns among librarians. He covers Threads’ rollout of long-form text, giving authors new ways to share excerpts and engage with readers. The main story is the settlement in the Anthropic AI copyright case, where avoiding a trial leaves fair use questions unanswered and could shape the future of licensing deals between tech firms and authors.
Listen to the Podcast: Libby Launches Inspire Me
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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 the first Self-publishing News of the autumn/fall or spring, depending on where you are, and what a busy week it has been.
Just as last week's podcast came out, we had news of a settlement in the ongoing Anthropic AI copyright piracy case. That is the main news.
The dust is beginning to settle a little bit, we still don't really know much in the way of detail, but the landscape is becoming a little clearer.
We will get to that, but a quick roundup of a couple of other interesting pieces of news first, and I will start with Libby.
Libby App Releases Inspire Me AI Tool
Dan Holloway: So, Libby is a library lending app, which is powered by Overdrive, who supply eBooks and audiobooks to many of the world's libraries, and through whom we as indie authors are able to make our own eBooks and audiobooks available to libraries.
As I understand it, not being a Libby subscriber, it is an app that enables you, from your smartphone, to borrow eBooks and audiobooks from your local library. So, it's sort of like going down and visiting your physical library, but on your phone, and the new tool that they have launched is called Inspire Me.
Inspire Me is a discovery tool. They say it's designed to help enhance, rather than replace the valuable role of librarians in curating their collections. So, it will enable people to find more of the books that are available in their local libraries. That sounds like a very good thing.
The reason it has been slightly controversial is that in its press release, Overdrive also claims that it is driven by AI.
I have to say, the way they describe it, it seems more like what we would simply have called a few years ago, an algorithm rather than actual AI.
Basically, it does several things. It recommends you books based on what it thinks you're going to like. It recommends you books that are available in your local library rather than generic things that may or may not be available, and it offers you books that are available for borrowing now, as opposed to ones that are already out on loan.
So, it makes the whole process more user-friendly. It doesn't seem very AI-like to me, but it has raised some hackles from librarians who aren't so convinced by the enhancing, not replacing librarians line.
Overdrive say that they will not harvest any more data than necessary and they will never sell data to third parties.
Make of it what you will, but this feature is now available for anyone who subscribes to Libby.
As indie authors whose books might not be necessarily on the front page of library offerings, this may be something that increases our discoverability.
Threads Launches New Long-Form Feature
Dan Holloway: Also, going around the platforms, Threads has a new feature which enables people to share long form text. It's going to be rolling this out, it says, much more widely in the near future.
One of the things they say this is handy for is sharing, as they put it, deeper thoughts, new snippets, book excerpts and more, and those book excerpts obviously can be books of one's own.
So, Threads may be looking to become more author friendly, and that may in turn make it more of an interesting or useful marketing tool as things like this develop.
That's the news around the platforms.
Anthropic AI Copyright Case Reaches Settlement
Dan Holloway: Obviously, as I say, the big news in the past week is that Anthropic and the plaintiffs in the case against them have both filed a form to the court saying they want to suspend proceedings, for the court case not to take place, because they have reached an agreement. As I say, it is not clear necessarily what this agreement is; terms will no doubt come out.
Maria Pallante of AAP, The Association of American Publishers who have been representing publishers is reminding people that this includes both publishers and authors.
I think now that it is September, the deadline has passed for people to state an interest in becoming a class, such that if and when the details of the settlement emerged, they will be contacted automatically by the courts. I don't think it's the case that if you haven't stated you are interested in becoming part of the class yet, it is too late.
There may be a chance to join it later, and I will obviously keep everyone updated on that, including people who are based outside the UK.
So, we had a question last time. Is it possible for writers who are outside the UK to be included in this because the form for notifying the courts seem to be very US-centric.
Victoria Strauss says on Writer Beware, there's no obvious reason why non-US residents shouldn't be part of the case, provided they meet the criteria.
Those criteria are that your book has been registered with the US Copyright Office, that it was registered, I think within the last five years, and that it was registered before Anthropic downloaded it either from Pirate Library Mirror or Library Genesis. So, if it meets those criteria, then it doesn't matter if you're based in the US or not, it seems as though you are eligible to be part of the class.
How you go about establishing or claiming to be part of the class, I will keep you updated when we have more details, as well as more details of the settlement.
Possible “Fair Use” Ruling Implications
Dan Holloway: Very interesting piece from Mark Williams following up on that, who is in his inimitable Mark Williams way, cynical of what this actually means, and whether it's in writer's best interests to have reached this case and not to have gone to court.
He makes a very good point that by not going to court, both sides have missed the opportunity to set a legal precedent, meaning that we still haven't actually established in law what the case is. Also, he makes the very important point that the chance to challenge fair use has been missed. The judge in the case, you'll remember, declared that Anthropic had made fair use, that their use of materials they had downloaded was, as he put it, “transformative; spectacularly so”, in the phrase that I will not forget in a long while.
All that he has said subsequently is that those books that were downloaded from Library Genesis or Pirate Library Mirror is piracy and a piracy case would be very well received. By settling that piracy case, the plaintiffs have not had the opportunity to challenge the fact that the actual use to which books were put was “fair”, which it was ruled in the original finding.
As Williams points out, in theory, what this means is that in future it leaves the door open for tech firms just to buy an eBook, and then they can claim fair use. It's not pirated, so anything that happens to do with the piracy settlement will not be relevant, but what will be relevant is the original fair use ruling.
So, he says this could actually really seriously undermine any future attempts at licensing deals, because why would tech companies want or be interested in licensing deals, such as that, that he says Microsoft were in the process of negotiating, which was looking at paying like around $500 a text. Why would they do that when they can just buy an eBook?
Very, very interesting point. We will see how that plays out. As I say, I will bring you news as soon as we have news of what the settlement actually entails and whether there are any further details on how to get involved and claim that your book is part of the class that is entitled to damages. I'm not sure whether I'll be able to bring you that news next time, but whatever happens next time, I will bring you whatever news there is. I look forward to speaking to you then.
