German Publishers Open Frankfurt With an Appeal for AI Training Transparency

What do Germany's publishers want from lawmakers as the world's biggest book fair opens? Proof of what AI companies trained on. On October 6, 2026, the Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels, the German Publishers and Booksellers Association, published the "Frankfurt Appeal," addressed to the European Commission, the European Parliament, and the German federal government. The association said 120 publishers had already signed it.

The appeal came out at the start of Frankfurter Buchmesse, which runs October 7 to 11, 2026, with Czechia as Guest of Honour.

"Two-fold theft"

The Börsenverein framed the appeal with a warning from its chairman, Sebastian Guggolz. "If policymakers fail to act now, AI will not only continue to rob millions of copyright-protected works from us, but will also, in the long term, rob us of our ability to think," he said. The association's press release headlined the point as a "two-fold theft by AI: first our books, then our thoughts."

Guggolz said that when it comes to AI, non-European corporations are dictating the terms. "AI companies use copyright-protected works without consent or remuneration to train their systems," he said. "Since there are no clear legal obligations to disclose training data, content owners are forced to conduct time-consuming searches for evidence themselves and enforce their claims through costly legal proceedings."

What the appeal asks for

The appeal, published in German on the Börsenverein's website, says AI companies train their models on copyright-protected works without the consent of publishers and authors, and that they mostly face no sanctions even when they ignore rights holders' explicit reservations against that use. Without clear legal duties, it says, AI companies do not disclose which works they used, even though it is technically possible.

The signatories ask lawmakers to ensure three things:

• Work-level transparency. Disclosure duties for AI companies must cover the specific training data for each work. The appeal says the general guidelines that now apply to AI providers fall clearly short of what the EU AI Act requires, and notes that one of the Act's stated purposes is helping rights holders enforce their rights.
• A licensing market with fair revenue models. The appeal says the text-and-data-mining rule has so far let AI providers help themselves de facto without paying, and that opt-out reservations are often ignored.
• Enforceable copyright. Existing European copyright law must be upheld and made enforceable. "Rights whose violation has no consequences are worthless," the appeal says (PT's translation from the German).

The appeal argues that, for the great majority of European publishers, suing the world's most powerful AI companies is practically not an option, so infringements go unpunished and the revenue stays with the AI firms at the expense of publishers, authors, illustrators, and translators.

Who has signed

The public signatory list includes Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, Holtzbrinck Buchverlage, Bonnier Media Deutschland, Hanser, Suhrkamp, Diogenes, dtv, Bastei Lübbe, Rowohlt, S. Fischer, and Verlag C.H.Beck, along with many smaller houses. The Federation of European Publishers and the International Publishers Association are also listed. The page invites more publishers to sign, and asks authors, translators, and illustrators who support it to encourage their own publishers to join.

Reading literacy

The Börsenverein paired the AI appeal with a warning about reading. Citing the latest PISA study, it said one-third of 15-year-olds lack adequate reading skills. It also said the number of young people aged 10 to 15 who bought books fell 30.6 percent in 2025 compared with the year before. "Those who can no longer read for comprehension are not able to verify an AI response at all," Guggolz said.

Guggolz called for daily reading sessions in schools, as proposed by the "Leseband" initiative, and for media literacy to become a compulsory subject.

At the fair

The Börsenverein scheduled two related panels on the Dialogue Stage in Foyer Hall 4.0: one on gaps in AI regulation on Thursday, October 8, at 11:30, with speakers including Member of the European Parliament Nela Riehl and Rainer Dresen of Penguin Random House Verlagsgruppe, and one on the education crisis on Friday, October 9, at 14:00.

Why it matters for authors

The appeal is aimed at European and German lawmakers, but its central ask, a legal duty for AI companies to say which specific works they trained on, could matter to any author whose books are published or sold in Europe. Today, as the appeal describes it, rights holders have to hunt for evidence themselves before they can even raise a claim. Work-by-work disclosure would make it far easier to check whether a book was used and to negotiate or enforce a license. The appeal also shows how much of German trade publishing, from the biggest groups to small independents, is now lined up behind the same demand.

Sources

• Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels: Start of Frankfurter Buchmesse: "Two-fold theft by AI: first our books, then our thoughts" (October 6, 2026)
• Börsenverein des Deutschen Buchhandels: Frankfurter Appell (appeal text and signatories, in German)
• Frankfurter Buchmesse: Frankfurter Buchmesse 2026 (dates and Guest of Honour)