T&F sells access rights to Microsoft for AI development

[Parasaurolophus]

The story is here (and free). The opening paragraphs:

x

Authors have expressed their shock after the news that academic publisher Taylor & Francis, which owns Routledge, had sold access to its authors' research as part of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) partnership with Microsoft—a deal worth almost £8m ($10m) in its first year.

The agreement with Microsoft was included in a trading update by the publisher's parent company in May this year. However, academics published by the group claim they have not been told about the AI deal, were not given the opportunity to opt out and are receiving no extra payment for the use of their research by the tech company.

This is the first I've heard of it, and I have a book with Routledge. My contract contains no language whatsoever about access rights for R&D purposes. I, for one, don't necessarily mind my book being made available, so long as I am paid royalties.

Near the end, the article says:

The Society of Authors (SoA) urged authors who "find their work has been used without their consent" to contact them for guidance and encouraged authors to complete a survey currently being conducted by the Authors' Licensing and Collecting Society (ALCS) around collective licensing options for authors.

But... how do we find out whether our work has been used in the first place?

[ciao_yall]

If your work is in their database, it has been sold.

[Ancient Fellow]

Very concerning ...