• by Ray Schultz , Yesterday

Publishers trying to block AI chatbots from scraping their content are being offered “Terms of Content Use” language to warn would-be scrapers. 

Raptive, which represents more than 6,000 creators and independent publishers, says the goal is to level the playing field for independents that lack the legal muscle enjoyed by big media companies. 

The new “Terms of Content Use” initiative explicitly prohibits scraping, copying, or republishing creator content without permission.

“Today, we’re furthering Raptive’s promise to protect independent creators on the open web by delivering a tangible solution for our network,” says Michael Sanchez, co-founder and chief executive officer at Raptive, in a statement. “Creator ‘Terms of Content Use’ is a clear signal to AI companies that the era of exploiting creators' work without consent or consequence is over.”

Raptive is also backing the new Really Simple Licensing (RSL) Standard, joining Cloudflare’s effort to block AI crawlers by default, and has formed a like partnership with ProRata. 

“We’re making this language available to everyone, including creators outside of Raptive’s network, so that any publisher can strengthen their defenses against unauthorized AI scraping,” adds Paul Bannister, chief strategy officer at Raptive.  

This, in turn, will safeguard publishers’ “intellectual property and economic value,” Bannister adds.

“With AI-driven disruption accelerating across the digital media landscape, Raptive is leading industry-wide efforts to ensure creators on the open web have the tools and backing to safeguard their intellectual property and economic value.”