Bookpact.ai is an online commercial licensing platform where publishers can opt-in, determine, on a title-by-title basis and with authors’ consent, whether and how an AI company can use their books, agree on compensation, and maintain insight into the work’s use.
The platform operates on six core principals: prior consent, fair compensation, content integrity and attribution, traceability, European focus, and sustainability. It is a platform designed to be used by AI companies to submit proposals for targeted licenses and by European publishers who can approve or reject these proposals. Furthermore, Bookpact.ai prioritizes companies that transparently report and demonstrably limit their climate impact.
Major publishers in the Netherlands, including Maven Publishing, Publishers VBK, and Lannoo have joined together to create the platform in hopes of forging a more effective and ethical relationship between AI companies and publishers from within the industry, choosing to work exclusively with AI parties willing to accept transparent and contractually enforceable terms.
In an official press release, Bookpact.ai and Maven Publishing founder Sander Ruys said, “Having a dedicated AI infrastructure for books gives authors and publishers a stronger negotiating position when doing business with AI companies. But the most important thing about Bookpact.ai is that authors and publishers retain control over their own books. Participation is voluntary and can differ per title and per type of use. Training is different from summarisation; translation is different from citation. Those who do not wish to participate can say ‘no’. Those who do participate set their own terms.”
This kind of transparent, two-sided, commercial licensing infrastructure is already gaining traction and could play a key role in the book industry’s future, offering publishers protection against exploitation and a fresh revenue stream as they enter into the AI economy.