I am really coming to loathe this AI thing.
Not that I ever actually liked it. I will not allow ‘Siri’ into my home or anything else like that. In fact, I hate hubby’s Xbox because it’s always listening.
It is not.
No?
Then how come every time you say “Xbox turn on”….it freakin’ turns on? You know, if it’s not always listening?
Oh, yeah, and BTW, since I took ALL social media off my phone, Google is no longer surprising me with things I discussed while my phone was in front of me. MY FB algorithm has no idea what to do with me anymore.
Today I’m here to let off a little steam about the ‘scraping’ of illegally pirated books and other materials like music, videos, and movies, so rich companies like Meta, don’t have to pay to have their AIs ‘trained’. That’s right, these places, like Meta and so many others are illegally downloading scads of material just to feed it to their AI programs to make them more life like.
I found that out in an author group on….oh yeah…FB today. The poster was quite upset and I don’t blame them. It’s bad enough that small time authors like myself spend loads of time trying to get our works OFF these sites and going to great lengths to ensure they don’t end up on them.
It’s fucking $0.99 asshole. Cough up or get out.
Of course I went to the link provided by The Atlantic. I don’t have a subscription. I’m not signing up for one. BUT they were kind enough to leave the active link to the database so you can see if you’ve been embroiled in this BS.
https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2025/03/search-libgen-data-set/682094/
Go for it.
Well, ain’t the purdy?
As I muttered a colorful strand of obscenities and refrained from punching the monitor I sat back, took a long sip off my coffee (it’s times like these I really need my tincture) and I looked at the titles one-by-one.
“Christmas Eve on Olympus”….ok. That sucker is FREE on my site. Now you have to ask for it but for a long time it was just an instant download. I’ve give that away a lot. So…I’ll choke that one down.
“The Heart of War”….I’ve spent many hundreds of hours getting that off pirate sites to little or no avail. I was young, I was hungry for attention, I wanted to people to READ IT and I gave it away by the truckload…in .pdf. I didn’t know! I was new at this. I gave it to anyone who said they wanted to review it without a second thought.
Yeah, that was stupid but I like to say I was simply naiev.
It started popping up on those pirate sites pretty damn quickly though I didn’t know that right away either because I had no idea they existed other than this thing called NAPSTER which I always scolded my husband for using. It wasn’t until after “Child of War-A God is Born” was out there that these sites came to my attention and I had to start dealing with them.
I’ve also given away “The Heart of War” frequently through one of the yearly Smashwords events. However, it’s not a free download on my site and never has been. But it’s been out there a long time floating in the ether untethered. So…I’ll choke that one down too.
“Child of War-Rising Son”… I don’t remember giving away as many copies of this book as I did the others before it. By this time, .pdf was out of the question except to my beta readers. Giveaways were paperback or through Amazon. This July, for the first time ever, I did put up for free through the Smashwords event. I don’t remember chasing it down on many pirate sites.
Now to the top one, the ‘box set’ that was available for….I dunno….six months. Maybe. Back in 2014. Personally, I hate the idea of ‘box set’ of ebooks. It sticks in my craw. Call it a multiple download if you like but…’box set’? Nah. While I don’t remember giving away a ton of these, I do recall spending a ton of time trying to get that off pirate sites. Which is why it didn’t last that long for sale.
I was surprised to see that one. I had forgotten about it. Completely. I had to dig around in my KDP Archive to find it so I could tell you the year. I was also surprised to see that “Child of War-A God is Born” (by itself) it NOT there. I was still young and hungry then, I did give away several of those ebooks. I did find it on pirate sites–as mentioned above– and I did try to get it taken down.
What happened there?
As I sat here at Ye Olde Keyboard noting that none of the Sister Christian series is listed. “Women of War” is not here. “Kingdoms of War” is not here. “The First Sin” is not here. I realized two things.
1-I’ve gotten a hell of a lot better at locking down my stuff over the years.
2-Ares will always be my heaviest hitter.
I love you.
I know.
I wonder, of all the people, who read free from “Heart” straight through “Rising Son” may have possibly bothered to kick me a few nickels for “Women” and “Kingdoms”?
Probably none.
I know but dreamin’ is free, huh?
If he’s right, then, in that event, I wonder how they liked just being left there on the edge of that cliff?
If you’re out there, Mr. Zuckerberg, you’re really a cheap little shit. You would never tolerate this being done to you. But, I understand, you are not alone. Not by far.
When I paid to use Canva Pro that month and was generating all those images…some of them actually had artists’ signatures on them in the bottom right corner.
Those are ‘scraped’ too.
Those people were not asked and they did not get paid. Their stuff was stolen just like mine and used to make money for someone else just like mine.
I just wonder how many of ‘us’ are out here. What is ‘our’ number?
It seems there isn’t much you can do about it other than your best to lock it all down at tightly as possible before sending out on Ye Olde Internet. Yes, there’s currently a lawsuit but, other than the judgment–if that goes in your favor–you’ll probably get a check for $5.00. That’s insulting. So I’ll pass.
Oh well, I suppose in some strange way this might help explain that rash of scams I went through last month with their Praise & Prey AI generated summaries and ChatGPT encouraging sweet talk. Doesn’t explain how they couldn’t tell me the ending. Right?
I don’t know it’s weird. I’m really hating the 21st century. “Star Trek” and “The Jetsons” aren’t turning out to be ‘As Advertised’.
But “I, Robot” just might.
Lisa Beth Darling 