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.

It's Happening Again, Already.

Well, the peace didn't last long. Tuesday, August 25, I learned of yet another website hijacking my blog post content. This time is different, and may be next to impossible to stop. Thank you, "EntomoplanetDOTcom," for at least not stripping my blog title from what you have stolen, but you still do not have my permission.

The problem this time is that the website host is in Poland of all places. It makes it a lot harder to shut down something like this when it is literally an international incident. It appears the best we can do is to alert Google so that they can boot the website to the bottom of their search engine "results," or banish the scammers from appearing in Google at all.

I was tipped off when I received an e-mail asking me to "moderate" one of my recent blog posts, the one celebrating victory over the other thief, ironically enough. I never get e-mail notifications that look like that, and so I began investigating.

This website is classified as a "news aggregator," and indeed it is not only "aggregating" content from my blog, but also lifting posts from "Entomology Today" (the blog of the Entomological Society of America), and the "Living With Insects" blog. I have notified both parties via e-mail.

This kind of thing is demoralizing, as I am sure you can imagine, and it means I have to learn how to write my own DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) takedown notices and what not. Alex Wild, a talented photographer who has his images stolen all the time, devotes much of his time now to addressing such legal problems. He informs me that "85% of internet marketing is done by criminals." How comforting.

For now, I am in the process of taking in advice on what to do next. Your suggestions are welcome, too, of course. Thank you all for your continued patience and policing on my behalf.

Grand Theft Caterpillar (caught on video)

Parasitoid wasps, those species in which the female incapacitates its host, and often caches one or more victims in a burrow, mud nest, or natural cavity, are not above stealing prey from others of their own kind, rather than doing an honest day's hunting. Such was the case I captured recently on video, while watching a Podalonia cutworm hunter in my Colorado Springs neighborhood.

Walking a path through degraded shortgrass prairie habitat, I suddenly noticed this wasp, with her prey, in the middle of the trail. She may have been feeding on the caterpillar's hemolymph (blood), or just making sure the larva was properly paralyzed.

She was nearly motionless for some time, so it came as a bit of a shock when it became apparent she was at the very entrance of a burrow she had excavated before going hunting. Here, in the video clip below, she finishes opening the tunnel, then drags her prize underground. Notice she is a "puller," carrying "armloads" of soil out of the nest rather than scratching it out behind her in a fountain of sand like sand wasps do.

Emerging from the tunnel after burying the cutworm, the female wasp suddenly took flight. I heard a loud buzzing and noticed she was engaged in a literal knock-down drag-out battle with another female Podalonia. The tangle of wings, legs, and bodies persisted a surprisingly long time before the two separated.

I could not tell who the victor was, until a wasp dragged the caterpillar back out of the nest burrow. Clearly, the winner was the usurper, and she was now claiming her spoils.

What is revealing about the complex instincts of hunting wasps is how their internal "program" demands they follow a strict sequence of behaviors, regardless of circumstance. So, the wasp repeatedly stung the already-paralyzed caterpillar, as it would if it had hunted the larva instead of pilfering it from the other wasp.

This drama was playing out in mid afternoon, and I had to get back home to eat something, feed and walk the dog, and whatever other chores I had been neglecting. Consequently, I could not determine whether the thief had not yet excavated her own burrow. She deposited the caterpillar and scurried seemingly randomly before beginning to dig. Perhaps she was opening her own burrow, or digging a new one. She tried digging in another, nearby spot as well, but I had to leave before the whole situation played out completely.

When I left, the original wasp had returned, and the paralyzed caterpillar at the center of the robbery was, ironically, sitting equidistant from both wasps. For all I know, the honest wasp was able to reclaim her property.

Podalonia version of detente

Every day in the world of "bugwatching" is an adventure, and your likelihood of witnessing such captivating episodes increases the more time you are outdoors looking. Sure, there is a fair degree of luck involved, but I guarantee you will see and hear many amazing behaviors if you are the least bit alert.