Ali Mercer

I wrote a timeslip! V excited to have a dark twisty multigenerational family story with secrets, lies, and old house and a spot of time travel out this summer with @bookouture. Book deal news here: bookouture.com/bookouture-acq…

We welcome the Government’s decision to drop proposals that would have allowed artificial intelligence companies to use copyrighted works without permission. Our statement in full: solt.co.uk/solt-uk-theatr…

The UK government released its progress report on AI & copyright today. The good news for creatives is that the government formally dropped its preferred option of a broad copyright exception with an opt-out. This was unworkable and hugely unpopular. It's good that they've recognised this. The bad news is that weakening copyright law is very much still on the table. They haven't actually ruled out that hugely unpopular opt-out proposal, and they are explicit that they are still considering other forms of copyright exception too. We are obviously in a better position than we were eighteen months ago, when the government was clearly in the pocket of big tech and was actively proposing an extremely harmful policy. Credit should go to the many, many creatives who fought that proposal, and to the new leadership at DSIT for listening. But it's important not to see this as more of a win than it really is. The government is still considering weakening copyright law to favour AI companies, and those AI companies will continue to lobby very hard for them to do so. Until the government rules out weakening copyright law, people need to keep making their voices heard. Our work is not the government's to give away. Speaking up works. Read the report here: assets.publishing.service.gov.uk/media/69ba6922…

Good news klaxon: The UK Government has removed its backing from plans to make it easier for AI companies to steal copyright create content (including news articles).

The UK government has today published a Copyright and Artificial Intelligence report outlining that it is moving away from the proposed copyright exception for AI training, widely rejected by the creative industries. Read more 👇 ebx.sh/CB0otQ

Fantastic news in the UK today - the government has apparently ditched its plan to force creatives to 'opt out' if they don't want AI companies training on their life's work. The opt-out proposal was unfair and unworkable. Many couldn't realistically have opted out at all, and it would have affected small rights holders disproportionately negatively. We should be grateful to the government for listening to reason on this, rather than just listening to the big tech lobby. They have done the right thing by putting opt-out behind us. They should now reaffirm what the law says - that AI companies must license people's work if they want to train on it - and commit not to change that law. thetimes.com/uk/technology-…

You can see the full list of authors involved at dontstealthisbook.com

Today, we're publishing Don't Steal This Book - a (mostly) empty book from almost 10,000 authors, protesting the theft of their work by AI companies. The UK government is considering upending copyright law to benefit AI companies. Don’t Steal This Book urges them not to. Apart from the list of authors involved, the book is empty, representing the effect the government’s plans would have on authors' livelihoods. We're handing out 1,000 free copies at London Book Fair over the next couple of days. If you’re there, pick up a copy! A huge thank you to the thousands of authors involved. Read more here: theguardian.com/technology/202… #DontStealThisBook

We are thrilled to announce the acquisition of women’s fiction novels from authors @RoseA_writer, @AlisonLMercer and Daisy O’Shea. Read more: ow.ly/hpvI50YiJf7

We are so sad to share that Dame Stephanie “Steve” Shirley CH has passed away aged 91. Child refugee turned tech pioneer, philanthropist & autism advocate, she founded an all woman software company & changed countless lives. Her light will never fade. Steveshirley.com

@rosiewilby @virginmedia Yup - resetting was involved!

@AlisonLMercer @virginmedia Happy for you. Did you have to reset a password or something? Or it just came back on? I’m only trying on phone right now

@WhichUK have you heard about the latest epic email fail from @virginmedia and @O2? Something to follow up next time you survey the best and worst broadband & email providers...

@rosiewilby @virginmedia Am back into mine now. A huge relief. Hope you are able to get into yours soon.

@AlisonLMercer @virginmedia 🙄 🙄 let’s keep in touch. I’d love to know when yours comes back. There’s something comforting about at least knowing others are in the same boat and there’s not much we can do 😞 🤷‍♀️

@rosiewilby @virginmedia Pretty much 🙄

@AlisonLMercer @virginmedia What did they tell you to do? Just to wait?

@virginmedia I'm currently waiting on your complaint line, which is very busy, unsurprisingly

@AlisonLMercer We're sorry for any inconvenience caused by this Ali, so we can double check this for you please drop us a DM. twitter.com/messages/compo…

@virginmedia A straightforward compensation process would be good, too. The voice recognition system on your tech support phone line is up there with Vogon poetry for its power to cause agony and distress to humanoid life forms.

@virginmedia I've been told by your tech support that I won't be able to access my emails for 48 hours because of issues your end with the Virgin Media O2 ID process. I think you ought to be upfront about telling customers that there's a major issue.

the issue seems to be the crappy pointless O2 Virginmedia ID we're all now required to have, which brings no benefits but significant disadvantages ie no service. The enshittification of previously functional tech continues.

(I've been told engineers are working on it but affected customers will have no email for 2 days - probably thousands of people. Would that AI could stop this kind of thing happening, but it just seems to make customer service phone lines even more agonising.)

apparently there's an absolute disaster with email service following the merger of @O2 and @virginmedia - is anyone else out there affected? #virginmedia #seewhattheycantdo