Image – Getty: Natrot
By Porter Anderson, Editor-in-Chief | @Porter_Anderson
‘A TDM Opt-Out Notice’
As pre-Frankfurter Buchmesse meeting schedules explode on trade visitor calendars, the German digital distribution and publishing tech company Bookwire is announcing that it’s implementing protection for copyrighted content from unauthorized use by artificial intelligence interests. The company tells the news media today (October 11) that it’s also working on “licensing content to AI providers.”
Developers of large language models (LLMs) are continually searching the Internet for new content on which to train their respective models, often relying on provisions for text and data mining. If rights holders in such cases don’t want their content to be used for the training of language models, they must attach a legally compliant, machine-readable usage reservation (TDM opt-out) to their content.
“Effective immediately, all ebooks and audiobooks distributed by Bookwire,” the company says in its statement, “will be equipped with a TDM opt-out notice in ONIX data. Additionally, the TDM opt-out is stored in the metadata of all EPUBs that we deliver via the TDMRep protocol.”
In addition, the company’s media messaging says 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
The founding CEO of Liccium Sebastian Posth says that his company’s approach “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.”
Nicolas Henning Bräuer
Bookwire’s legal counsel and data protection officer Nicolas Henning Bräuer says, “We offer publishers the opportunity not only to protect their content but also to benefit from the growing market for AI usage.
And Bookwire’s business development lead, Eric Bartoletti, says, “Given the rapid development in the AI sector and ongoing interest in using high-quality publishing content for LLM training, it’s time to sustainably strengthen the position of rights holders.”
Eric Bartoletti
Bartoletti says the goal is to “collectively find meaningful and fair usage and compensation models for this emerging market.”
In 2025, Bookwire says, the partnership with Liccium will be expanded to include the licensing of content to AI providers. Discussions are said to be underway with relevant AI providers, publishers, and author representatives to ensure fair compensation and business models, as well as legal sound frameworks.
At the Frankfurt Book Fair this year, Bookwire’s main stand at Hall 4.0, G7 and their stand in the Frankfurt Audio area is at Hall 3.1, K14.
A Programming Note
As part of our 2024 Publishing Perspectives Forum programming at Frankfurter Buchmesse, we’ve scheduled a session related to artificial intelligence and content, featuring Trip Adler, founder and former CEO of Scribd, and now the co-founding CEO of Created by Humans. Details:
When It’s ‘Created by Humans’: A New AI Rights Platform, with CEO Trip Adler
In conversation with Porter Anderson
Trip Adler
This AI licensing platform for creators and publishers is planning to eventually expand to video, music, name-and-likeness data, and even medical data.
- Frankfurt Thursday, October 17
- 10 to 10:45 a.m.
- Frankfurt Studio, Hall 4.0 just off the Agora (this year’s Publishing Perspectives Forum venue)
More from Publishing Perspectives on artificial intelligence and publishing is here; more on Trip Adler’s work is here, and more on Frankfurter Buchmesse is here.
About the Author
