AI scraping “theft” is affecting freelancer livelihoods yet big tech sees it as “fair use” for training LLMs
SPECIAL REPORT
New freelancer platform promises to protect freelance gaming artists from AI scraping. Could the same be created for other freelancers?
Freelance game artists often face exposure, pay, and security challenges. A new platform called Devoted Fusion aims to protect freelancers and simplify studio hiring.
Plus, we share how authors including Sarah Townsend and Richard Osman are claiming their works have been “scraped” and published on an illegal archive and how Meta could be using that illegal site to train its open source Large Language model Llama 3.
The striking visuals of video and tabletop games owe everything to talented artists. Yet, for freelancers eager to contribute or break into this exciting field, the reality can be tough. They are often faced with opaque contracts, scam jobs, and then there is the typical freelancer’s chore of chasing unpaid invoices. But perhaps the most disheartening factor of being an artist in the gaming development industry, whether tabletop or digital, is AI theft through large language model scraping and prompts.
Polish digital artists such as Greg Rutkowski claim to have witnessed their names used as a prompt in AI art generation tools. In the case of Rutkowsi, this has happened over 400,000 times since September 2022 without his permission, according to a BBC report.
This usage, exceeding that of artists like Pablo Picasso and Leonardo da Vinci, is concerning for Rutkowski’s future work, despite his established career in games like Dungeons and Dragons and Magic: The Gathering. These generative AI tools, such as Midjourney and Dall.E, create new artworks based on user-typed prompts by learning from vast datasets of existing online images, a practice artists like Rutkowski are protesting due to the lack of consent.
But it’s not just digital artists in the gaming industry that are being affected by unauthorised AI scraping. Some in the gaming industry are calling the practice theft.
Samantha Webb, an award-winning developer in the tabletop game publishing sector, shared her recent experience of her copyrighted material being copied in a LinkedIn post:
Meta has stolen my work and the work of my colleagues and friends; plain and simple. We got informed that some rulebooks like Star Trek Adventures and the Fallout RPG were scraped by LibGen and that directory has been used to train its AI model. And I’ve checked the LibGen directory The Atlantic published, and it’s true.
AI is snake oil. As I heard recently “it gets things wrong all the time but says it incredibly confidently” and it couldn’t be more accurate – and it’s built on the stolen labour of so many talented and skilled people.
Even The Spy Game is on there – a very personal project of mine that took so many hours of design, testing, and writing to get to publication. The drivel these LLMs vomit out could never hope to replicate the real truth of the design work behind the games we make.
Library Genesis or LibGen is reportedly a Russia-based platform of 7.5 million pirated books, articles and research papers. It has been said the archive has been sued multiple times but haven’t paid a penny because no one can track down who is actually running the operation and from where.
In a recent The Rest is Entertainment podcast hosted by authors Richard Osman and Marina Hyde they discuss the risks to authors in the murky world of LibGen, the “Russian illegal archive that has ripped both host’s back catalogue of books and the possibility that Facebook has used it to train their AI chatbot, [Llama 3].”
Richard Osman said in the podcast that all of his books have been illegally copied and are on the LibGen site. Hyde also confirmed that her work is on the site and discusses in the episode how any company that steals or uses unauthorised copyrighted material for financial gain is committing a criminal offence in the UK. She argues that the generic justification by some AI chatbot developers, as the process of AI scraping to improve LLMs being “fair use” is taking things too far. Livelihoods are affected.
Fair use is a legal principle in the United States that makes it possible for the limited use of copyrighted material without obtaining permission from the copyright holder. However, with large language models using this principle to justify training their models on full texts of “stolen” copyrighted material is ethically questionable. But the AI battle to the top is taking precedence as rivals such as China’s DeepSeek challenge US tech LLMs for speed and accuracy.
US news site The Atlantic reported on 20 March, 2025: “Court documents released last night show that the senior manager felt it was ‘really important for [Meta] to get books ASAP,” as ‘books are actually more important than web data.” Meta employees turned their attention to Library Genesis, or LibGen, one of the largest of the pirated libraries that circulate online.”
UK freelancer told her book has been listed on LibGen
Concerned that some freelancers in the UK who have published books might be affected, The Freelance Informer (FI) did a search on LibGen. We found one of the works of freelance copywriter-turned-book author Sarah Townsend in the pirate archive. When we informed Townsend of the FI’s discovery, she was shocked and initially had some rather choice words to share.
“My initial reaction when I heard about LibGen – and the fact that one of my own books had been scraped – was unprintable,” she told The Freelance Informer.
She continued:
Authors spend years crafting books with care, creativity and expertise. To see that work scraped and used without consent by trillion-dollar companies like Meta – via pirate sites such as LibGen – feels like being quietly robbed in broad daylight.
This isn’t progress – it’s exploitation.
The Atlantic, has provided a link for those concerned that their written works may be on the LibGen site, through a search tool you can access directly here. You can also access The Atlantic’s search tool for movie and television writing used to train AI here.
The article continues below.
New platform wants to keep freelance artists protected
Devoted Fusion, which comes from the same people behind Devoted Holding (Devoted Studios), says it has a way to help freelancers protect their art. This new platform directly connects game companies, publishers, and brands with over 3,000 artists and animators from all over the world who have already been vetted to avoid AI scraping.
Devoted Fusion is focusing on letting artists be seen everywhere, keeping their work safe from AI copying (using Cloudflare), and making sure payments are secure. This could be a good thing for game artists who work for themselves. It should make it easier for studios to find people to hire and give artists the tools and visibility they need. This might make things fairer and work better for everyone in the game-making world.
Jason Harris, who’s in charge at both Devoted Studios and Devoted Fusion, says, “Companies don’t really want to build huge teams in expensive places anymore. They need to hire outside, expert freelancers more and more to grow without spending too much money.”
There’s a big need for good game artists everywhere, but it can be a bit messy for them to find work. Places like North America and Western Europe used to be the main spots, but now places in Eastern Europe (like Ukraine and Poland) and parts of Asia (like Malaysia and South Korea) are hotbeds for game art talent.
These markets have great art schools and understand what games need to look like and how they work technically. If there aren’t easy-to-use websites for freelancers around the world to access work, a lot of this talent might not be discovered and hired.
Devoted Fusion wants to help freelance artists earn more money, too. The people running the website say the platform puts everything in one place, clear, and safe, which will help with money problems. Because they check artists beforehand, companies know they’re good. Plus, they have built-in tools for contracts, sending bills, and getting paid safely through Stripe, which makes paperwork easier and helps avoid getting scammed.
Ninel Anderson, CEO of Devoted Studios, says Devoted Fusion offers “visibility and discoverability for artists so it’s not scary to be a freelancer but instead feel empowered to choose projects about which they are passionate.” By directly linking artists with global clients and managing backend complexities, it lets freelancers focus on their art and secure fair pay.
For artists eyeing the gaming sector, while talent is key, broader skills boost appeal:
- Technical skills: Familiarity with Unity and Unreal Engine, plus industry software (Photoshop, Substance Painter, ZBrush) is valuable. Understanding engine constraints makes you a more integrated team member
- Game development knowledge: A basic grasp of game creation stages (pre-production to post-production) helps you understand your role
- Communication and collaboration: Clear remote communication and constructive feedback are crucial for teamwork
- Adaptability and problem-solving: The ability to adapt to changing needs and creatively solve visual issues is highly valued
- Game genre awareness: Knowing different game styles helps tailor portfolios and pitches
Devoted Fusion plans on offering masterclasses and developer vision boards.
The main article’s image source is Gemini Imagen. According to Gemini, it is an AI “generated image and is original and does not come from anyone else’s published work. As an AI, I don’t “scrape” existing copyrighted material to create images. Instead, I generate new visuals based on patterns and concepts learned from a massive dataset of images. The goal is to create something unique and not derivative of any specific artist or artwork.”
Platforms: Can they help protect freelancers from AI scraping?
With LibGen already out there, it may take years to stop those behind the site from scraping unauthorised work of authors and writers. With heavyweights like Meta reportedly justifying the use of such pirated archives for LLM training, the fight will only be tougher for authors.
Should freelance platforms offer anti-AI-scraping protections for their freelancers? Let us know what you think.
