Frankfurt am Main, October 11, 2024 – The Frankfurt-based publishing technology and distribution company Bookwire is implementing innovative solutions to protect copyrighted content from unauthorized use by Artificial Intelligence (AI) while also developing solutions for licensing content to AI providers.
Developers of so-called Large Language Models (LLMs) in particular are continuously searching the internet for new content to train their respective models, often relying on legal provisions for Text and Data Mining (TDM). If rights holders do not want their content to be used for the training of LLMs, they must attach a legally compliant, machine-readable usage reservation (TDM opt-out) to their content.
Bookwire offers various complementary solutions to provide the best possible protection for its publishing clients’ content. Effective immediately, all eBooks and audiobooks distributed by Bookwire will be equipped with a TDM Opt-Out notice in the ONIX data. Additionally, the TDM opt-out is stored in the metadata of all ePubs that we deliver via the TDMRep protocol.
Furthermore, Bookwire has entered into a collaboration with Liccium to promptly implement the International Standard Content Code (ISCC). An ISCC will be generated for each product in the Bookwire OS, which will include a TDM Opt-Out. Liccium will store the ISCCs in a publicly accessible database that clearly identifies the rights holder and the TDM Opt-Out status for any content. The ISCCs have been accepted by the International Organization for Standardization (ISO) as a new ISO standard and are already receiving positive feedback from LLM developers for verifying TDM Opt-Outs.
Sebastian Posth, Founder & CEO of Liccium: “The solution developed by Liccium enables rights holders to publish their TDM Opt-Out or licenses for the use of their content by AI companies in a publicly accessible registry. These rights and metadata are linked to the generated ISCC codes of the content and remain accessible even if embedded metadata is removed or the content has already been distributed. This offers a simple and efficient way to make machine-readable Opt-Out declarations or licensing offers publicly available.”
Next year, the partnership between Liccium and Bookwire will be expanded to include the licensing of content to AI providers. Discussions are already underway with relevant AI providers, publishers, and author representatives to ensure fair compensation and business models, as well as legally sound frameworks.
“With our solutions, we offer publishers the opportunity not only to protect their content but also to benefit from the growing market for AI usage,” explains Nicolas Henning Bräuer, Legal Counsel and Data Protection Officer at Bookwire.
“Given the rapid development in the AI sector and the ongoing interest in using high-quality publishing content for LLM training, it is time to sustainably strengthen the position of rights holders and collectively find meaningful and fair usage and compensation models for this emerging market,” says Eric Bartoletti, Head of Business Development at Bookwire.
For media inquiries and interview requests, please contact:
Jan Stausberg
Corporate PR Manager, Bookwire
jan.stausberg@bookwire.de
