✍️Ready to cash in on AI's big wins? | #161
✍️Ready to cash in on AI's big wins? | #161
Dear Big Tech: Let's talk about the fair use of creators' content.
Desk Notes
Please excuse the mess. Still building dreams. ✨
I just read the open letter on the unlawful use of creators' content for AI models - sent by the CRA to several tech companies, including Microsoft, Google, OpenAI, Apple, and Meta.
The letter reaffirms that "members of the Creators' Rights Alliance and the [500K+] creators they represent do not authorise the use of any of their works protected by copyright and related rights (including performers rights) for the training, development, or operation of AI models…unless the creators have specifically agreed licensing arrangements."
Creators' data is regularly being taken without permission and used to train AI, which is already impacting creators' income and ability to continue to work.
It also says creators should be paid for the 'copyright infringement' that has already occurred and have the option to remove their work from AI platforms or be credited for its use.
The CRA encourages all creators to use the IP Enterprise Court to combat infringement, especially the small claims track option, designed to support individuals running their small businesses.
You can read the full letter online.
The company every creator should be watching
👀Why ProRata is the platform every creator should be watching [Foundevo Newsletter]. Bill Gross at Prorata.ai has a plan to make AI powerhouses pay for content. "AI is powerful and unfair, and we're making it fair."
He’s right that lawsuits aren’t the answer.
It’s still in its early days, but great to see lots of publishers signing up. I hope it becomes a movement across the AI industry. Love their commitment to creators—I’ll be watching their growth!
You can join the waitlist for their new AI search engine. Register your content for 50/50 rev share and monitor how AIs use your work.
Progress! 💪
Nika
SUBMISSIONS WANTED. I’m starting an ode to café culture - a virtual trip around the world’s best indie coffee houses.
Partly inspired by the amazing news that Shanghai has more than 8,000 cafes, largely fueled by niche, independent outlets - helping to regenerate the city [BBC]. But also because they’re the best way to meet people, eavesdrop on convos, and get under the skin of a place when you travel.
St Leonards on Sea, where I live, is full of independent shops so I’ll share some cute cafés I go to regularly.
Submit your recs / bar stories.
Cool Things
I've enjoyed this week…
▶️1,637 hours of research into the fastest-growing email newsletters found this to be the biggest growth lever. A rising tide lifts all ships - a call for connection + collabs from Ellen Donnelly [The Ask].
▶️This mini-rant: 'How to think about the Substack network' - thoughtful piece by M.E Rothwell [Cosmography]. I love a growth story!
▶️Freelance Business Month - an invitation to run your own event in October. Elina is an inspiration. What a beautiful way to pay tribute to her dad. I'm very happy to support this—my lovely nan died from pancreatic cancer.
My Internetland
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Don't know if this is the right place to say it, but couldn't see another spot to respond to the AI update… with some explanatory info about the CRA (Creators Rights Alliance) as it's not mentioned in the piece you linked to Nika. So the website page showing the CRA's membership is at https://www.creatorsrightsalliance.org/membership – at the bottom are the logos of all the member organisations, ie it's made up of, by my count, 23 representative unions and associations, not individual creators (tho the bodies involved total about 500,000 individual members). But all the more oomph to it and if your organisation isn't on the list it's worth encouraging them to join as not too pricey (£600 a year per org.) and… boy, do individual/freelance creators need lobbying power to oppose the media corporations who are quite diligent in pursuit of bullying us out of our rights (contractually) and then exploiting them for their own benefit, often without the smallest widow's mite of a cut to the people who made what they're selling (AI being a whole new area ripe for them to pillage). Diverse crowd who are already members include our own NUJ (Nat Uion Of Journos), the Music Managers Forum, the Royal Photographic Society, the Societies of authors' and artists' agents, ALCS and DACS (collecting societies), Equity (actors), and the Assoc Of Illustrators (+ etc). All the best, Phil
DM from Fahim Pour, Elevista.ai (interesting startup - community-led growth tools for writers).
Hey Nika, just read your piece on Substack about big AI companies using creators' data and content to train their model for free and why that should be stopped by the likes of Prorata.ai. Couldn't agree more in principle, but do you think it's practical?
Internet is built on the basis of free data in return for traffic, like how Google or Youtube search work. Same goes for generative search experiences like Perplexity and the way they references sources.
I feel like if creators were to charge for their data, big companies may start charging them for giving their content visibility and traffic if you know what I mean...
Where do you think we're heading?