Stealing Minds and Destroying Morale: LibGen, Meta, and AI

Last week I learned that all four of the books for which I am sole author, or co-author, were illegally pirated by Library Genesis (LibGen). The LibGen database was in turn scraped illegally by Meta, the parent company of Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, for the purpose of training the company’s AI (Artificial Intelligence) program in use of the English language. How many literary works were compromised? What recourse do authors have? Why is this a problem? Go make the popcorn and brace yourself.

I am not alone in having my works taken illegally, without notification, without my consent, and certainly without compensation. An estimated 7.5 million books, articles, and scientific papers are on the LibGen website. Nearly all of my writer and science friends, and even their parents, are victims of this intellectual property theft. If you have ever had anything published, you need to search LibGen.

Thankfully, The Atlantic magazine provides a search tool, for free, in the top left corner of the page in this hyperlink. Use it. Search for the names of people you know, and notify them if their works appear.

If you are not already a member of the Authors Guild, I strongly recommend becoming one. This particular case is high profile, but only the tip of the iceberg. There are many other piracy platforms that provide free access to literature without compensating the author or the publisher. Authors Guild has a strong legal team that fights for the rights of authors against copyright violations, against book bans, against publishing scams aimed at newbie authors, and many other issues including slow payment and non-payment by publishers.

You may hear from various sources that LibGen is actually the “good guy,” and it is only Meta that is at fault in this case. Publishing is a complicated industry, its landscape changing almost daily. One argument I saw praising LibGen involves the fact it “archives” ebooks, which became even more important after February 26, 2025. On that date, Amazon made it impossible to download ebooks from Kindle to your computer, or any device over which you have control of the files. The fact that you can fetch them from LibGen does not let that pirating company off the hook, it simply punishes Amazon and the authors of those ebooks.

Most publishers of scientific journals truly are evil, though. First, the author pays exorbitant page fees to have their work published. Then, the publisher puts those papers behind a paywall that essentially shuts off access to the general public. I confess that without the “services” provided by the kin of LibGen, I would have extraordinary difficulty conducting research for my own books. I simply do not have the time to contact the author of a given paper, provided they are still alive, with a public email address, and ask them if they can provide me with a PDF of the paper I am seeking. God forbid that capitalism could keep its dirty fingers out of the pie of collective knowledge we should all be able to access, and that authors should not have to pay to publish.

Back to the current issue for a moment. What can authors do? Class action lawsuits against Meta are in the works, and I will likely let Authors Guild and the law firms do the heavy lifting on the behalf of us authors. AG also has a ”What Authors Need to Know” page listing additional courses of action, including a template for a letter you can send to Z-man, the CEO of Meta, to express your outrage, and/or concern. If your life can function without Facebook, Instagram, and Threads, you may want to consider alternative social media like Bluesky.

Why is all of this a problem? Authors and writers are already compensated precious little for what we produce. Many of us never see royalties, and “advances” ahead of publishing are becoming more of a rarity all the time. This devaluation of our skill set, imagination, and creativity is something we already suffer, without the added attacks of piracy and plagiarism, and the indignity of being replaced by AI tools.

I came across a YouTube video above, by Del Stone, Jr., that captures perfectly my own sentiments. The view that intellectual property is not worthy of respect, but instead something to be “harvested” and used against creative people in the future is demoralizing AF, as the kids these days would say. What these corporations are doing is robbing people like me of the desire to continue creating content, and stimulating critical thinking by our readers.

You wonder why I rail against capitalism over on my Sense of Misplaced blog? Now you have some idea. I can no longer promise new posts here, or there. What is the point? Why should I continue to provide free fodder for AI machines? I’m open to persuasion, but for now I may stick to putting out a book every so often, and doing the odd article for the few editors I treasure. Thank you, and good luck.

Starving the Thief

Last week an innocent e-mail from one of my blog followers alerting me to a potential typographical error revealed a much greater travesty. It turns out that my blog content, from images to text (word-for-word) has been stolen wholesale and used to produce another blog, "Beauty of Insect." My blog has essentially been cloned, with no way to contact the anonymous administrator of the imposter blog, no comment feature enabled, nothing. The other blog is clearly just out to accrue advertising revenue. This has led me to incredible frustration with the Google Support Team that oversees violations on Blogger; and also raised personal and ethical questions for me.

Until the time this case is resolved, I do not foresee posting any further content. I'm sorry. I hate to do this. I have some really neat stories pending, but I am not going to "feed the thief."

I do not know how long "Beauty of Insect" has been doing this. I have "Google Alerts" on my name and blog title, but not on individual content, and I'm not sure how to do that, or if it is even possible. Online content thievery and replication is rampant, and many of my colleagues have simply given up trying to overcome it. Others have had to all but abandon their regular business to devote the energy required to prosecute offenders. Chief among these superheroes is Alex Wild, a leading macro photographer who even started a Facebook group devoted to photo thievery and how to stop it (or at least slow it down).

I went immediately to my own Facebook friends upon discovery of this crime, and received advice and links within hours. One friend, an attorney, even began the process of writing a DMCA takedown notice, only to find Google requires one to file a takedown notice for each post for which there is plagiarism. That is well over sixty-five (65) notices at last count.

"DMCA" stands for the "Digital Millennium Copyright Act," and is meant to protect original online content from unauthorized duplication (copyright infringement); but your content does not even need to be copyrighted in the usual legal sense, to be able to invoke a takedown notice.

The Google Support Team has at best been slow as molasses to respond to my attorney's requests, and compliance with Google's requirements. She is working for me pro bono, no less, and I have an incredible amount of guilt and humiliation considering what she has gotten herself into.....with no obvious light at the end of this tunnel to date.

Should the DMCA takedown notice ever be honored, the perpetrator will be required to remove their blog, or have it done for them by their ISP (Internet Service Provider). What a waste of server space it is currently.

Meanwhile, I struggle with competing sentiments and ethical boundaries. On the one hand it is incredibly flattering to think that my creations are so coveted by others that they are willing to take the risk of using them without my consent. Maybe one indication of your "arrival" as a blogging superstar is this kind of criminal enterprise at your expense.

On the other hand, and perhaps this is what I most object to, is that they are accruing revenue with stolen content. This is revenue (or at least potential revenue), that I will never see, but have more than earned in time, my own money, effort, sweat, and tears. This is then a financial crime, not "merely" plagiarism.

One interesting point was brought up in conversation with some of my incredibly intelligent, worldly, and observant colleagues on Facebook is that there are cultural differences in the perception of what exactly is infringement. Many overseas cultures do not interpret this behavior as being wrong, let alone criminal; but the bulk of traffic on the internet streams through the U.S.A., where we definitely do frown on copyright violations. How do we resolve these differences? There is an increasing movement to segregate the 'net, such that each nation is able to establish its own rules, and hide from what is perceived to be the "prying eyes" and bullying policing of America.

I already owe my followers here a great deal for their loyalty, and support through donations. I have one last request of you all. Should you ever, ever see my content elsewhere on the web, disassociated from my name, my blogs, my Facebook pages, or Flickr photostream, please contact me immediately with the offending URL!. I will do the same for you. Thank you for your patience and understanding.