SCBWI worldwide acts as a network for the exchange of knowledge between writers, illustrators, editors, publishers, agents, librarians, educators, booksellers and others involved with literature for young people. As a unified body, SCBWI acts as a powerful force to effect important changes within the field of children's literature, promoting new copyright legislation, equitable treatment of authors and artists, and fair contract terms.
There are currently more than 22,000 members worldwide, in over 70 regional chapters writing and illustrating in all genres for young readers, making it the largest children's writing organization in the world.
Founded in 1971 by a group of Los Angeles-based children's writers, the Society of Children’s Book Writers and Illustrators is a non-profit, 501 (c)3 organization which is one of the largest existing organizations for writers and illustrators.
SCBWI Australia East is an Australian chapter. It is a dedicated community of children’s book writers and illustrators living in NSW, TAS, VIC, SA, QLD and the ACT, that offers opportunities to connect and grow careers in children's and young adult literature.
Authors and illustrators are at the heart of the creative industry in Australia and contributes over $2 billion to the Australian economy. SCBWI has serious concerns about the Productivity Commission’s recommendation that technology companies have a copyright exemption to train their AI models without seeking creators’ permission and without financial compensation. Large AI models have already trained Australian creators’ work – without consent and compensation – but seek to explore an exception to authorise such use.
Generative AI companies have scraped millions of copyrighted books from criminal pirate websites such as Library Genesis, Z-Library, and Anna’s Archive, all without permission. These sites have evaded enforcement, operating anonymously overseas and reappearing under new domains whenever action is taken against them. Major AI developers have used datasets built on this stolen material to train their models—profiting from intellectual property they neither created nor licensed. And those models now generate synthetic books that directly compete with legitimate titles—undermining discoverability, siphoning off royalties, and deceiving consumers. It is a systematic, large-scale infringement of creators’ copyright.
Creators are not anti-tech but it is essential to develop generative AI in an ethical way that includes fair payment for creator’s essential work. It is essential that AI developers are clear, transparent and obtain consent for use of copyright material and compensate creators fairly.
Valuing Australian-made stories and culture, protects creators rights to make and be paid fairly for their work. It protects Australian books, especially children’s books that provide quality literature for young people now and in the future.
We advise all creators to add this to their websites and IP:-
NO AI TRAINING: Without in any way limiting the author/illustrator’s [and publisher’s] exclusive rights under copyright, any use of this publication to “train” generative artificial intelligence (AI) technologies to generate text is expressly prohibited. The author/illustrator reserves all rights to license uses of this work for generative AI training and development of machine learning language models.
Generative AI poses a threat to the lives of creators and the social, cultural, and economic value of their creative work.
Support material:-
Income of authors: National-Survey-of-Australian-Book-Authors-Summary.pdf
SCBWI Australia East: Australia East – SCBWI