A lot of writers are losing their minds about the article in The Atlantic about a pirate site illegally taking copies of titles, posting them, and letting Meta use them to train their AI program.

The Authors Guild has already joined with publishers and the federal government in pursuing this. (See AG article here.)

(quote from AG article) Legal action is already underway against Meta, OpenAI, Microsoft, Anthropic, and other AI companies for using pirated books. If your book was used by Meta, you’re automatically included in the Kadrey v. Meta class action in Northern California without needing to take any immediate action. The court is first deciding whether Meta broke copyright laws, with a decision expected this summer, before officially certifying everyone as a class.

If your books have been pirated and used (you can tell on The Atlantic article where they have designed a place to search for your titles), you are already included in the lawsuit.

I am reading all sorts of comments by authors.

1. Someone ought to do something.
   • (Somebody already has. Read above again.)
2. This is the government’s fault because it has been dismantled by Trump.
   • (Um, big no. This predates Trump and has nothing to do with politics.)
3. Who allowed this to happen?
   • (Seriously? As long as there has been business entities, there has been graft, cons, and scams. Keeping up with the ups and downs of your profession is part of doing business.)
4. I work too hard as it is. I might as well quit.
   • (Honestly, go ahead. Nobody should coax you one way or the other to write. This is a personal decision. If you think this blip is enough to break you, then by all means quit. There are plenty of other authors to take your place.)

If you feel you need something to do, then read this article posted recently by the Authors Guild. They give you a list of things you can do if you like. There’s even a template to use if you want to write Meta and tell them to stop.

But quit? Blame politics? Yelling into the void (or on social media) is a waste of your precious writing time. As for me, I’m just going to start another book. I’m not letting these idiots take that away from me. Is it worth my while?

Writing is always worth my while or I wouldn’t do it.