So there’s some good news and some bad news...

In response to a last month’s issue about NOT giving your milk away for free (i.e., not giving BigTech & their Overlords unfettered rights to reproduce your IP, likeness, etc. without paying you or asking your permission), I also posted a few Reels and did a breakdown on why Google Docs suffers from the same problems you see in the Meta suite.

The good news: I’ve found great hacks for getting around the need to feed your IP into the machine. Even if you want to join me in the Tin Foil Hat Club, you can still live in the world, show people your cool stuff, and protect your work from misuse by the TechOverlords.

The bad news: That ain’t gonna happen on Google Docs, though, sorry buddies.

Thanks to the increased traffic from the aforementioned issue of HAVING WRITTEN and associated Reels, I have a nice chunk of new subscribers and followers, so, first—HELLO! Real quick, here is some stuff about me, if you didn’t know already:

• I’m a mom and a lawyer.
• I read all the time (2026: 52/110), and post short, quippy book reviews each month about the previous month’s haul with a Super Short Synopsis.
• I’m querying my literary horror novel WHAT THE BODY WANTS: think "what if My Sister, The Serial Killer and Jennifer’s Body had bloodthirsty baby."

• I'm firmly against the use of GenerativeAI in the creative process.
• My pitch for why you should read this newsletter:
  • You'll get good book recommendations.
  • You’ll hear about easy ways to protect your copyright from the TechOverlords without sacrificing your ability to get your IP into people’s hands.

Also: some housekeeping matters—HAVING WRITTEN’s format is changing (again, ha).

We’re back to biweekly.

I’m going to publish every other week again, but each issue will be more targeted. Specifically, each month I’ll send one Big Book Review Issue + one Curmudgeonly Rant Issue. The truth is that my 3,500 word circulars are getting trapped in most people’s spam lol.

Put another way, each month you’ll see:

1. Issue 1: BOOK REVIEWS + minor updates on my novel adventure, shout-outs to my writing homies, and other neat (short) bookish things.
2. Issue 2: RANTING - important considerations for creatives, business entrepreneurs, or anybody owning copyright and how they can protect their IP in this age ofTechOverlords and GenerativeAI.

FTR, this newsletter is free and it always will be.

Why though?

First, I love books, and talking about them for the sake of it brings me great joy.

Second, I hate GenAI. For so many reasons. I discuss most of them here, here, here, here, and here.

Third, I think people should make decisions empowered by TRUTH when dealing with our TechOverlords. I hope to shine a light on the trip hazards. We are the people using the “inevitable” technology after all. I simply refuse to accept I have no say in whether or how the result of my creative endeavor—the thing that literally reflects the innermost workings of my subconscious, my soul, my very beating heart—is monetized by billionaires.

Remember when Sam Altman said the following?

In truth, there is another reason HAVING WRITTEN will always be free, and that’s because I want to be able to change my mind anytime about how it circulates. 🫠

We’re going to try this new format and see if it works!

Back To The Main Point: The next issue will be a Book Review Mega Issue (May + June). Today, though: we’re going to talk the “FREE" Google Workspace suite.

Before we begin, we must establish one important point: we are talking about the FREE VERSION of Google Workspace. The terms in the licensed user agreements at the enterprise level are very, very different that what a regular, single user is agreeing to. Shocker of shockers, TechOverlords do not fleece the living sh*t out of each other/subscribers who pay them big bucks in advance.

So on that “free” version, tho—

Last month, we noodled the Terms & Conditions of a few apps, something to consider before you publish your creative work on certain social media apps.

In that time, I received a few private questions about the Google suite, especially Google Docs, and whether the same dangers about giving tech irrevocable licenses to reproduce your IP applied in the Google space.

Simply put: it does. The big takeaway for me is that every single thing you put into the Google suite is training Gemini (Google’s version of ChatGPT); but importantly, they can also sell your IP to whoever the heck they want and give you no money.

Rather than rehashing the specific concern, I refer you to last month’s issue to understand the structure of this problem.

Using the structure noted above, I compare Google, Speechify, and BlueSky. Never to be outdone by my own incredulity, I’ve done the comparison by hand 💁🏻‍♀️ on handmade paper—

A few notes:

1. Nearly every software as a service (SaaS) will take an irrevocable license for the purpose of modifying your content so it actually format your work into the app. Lawyers made them do this. It doesn’t account for much.
2. Nearly every SaaS will take that license royalty free but it’s no moneymaker.
3. The question is—how will the SaaS qualify the USE of that irrevocable, royalty-free, worldwide license? Because if they can sell it without your permission, if they can make money from it, if they can make their AI work with it—and do that for free—you may be giving the milk away...

Again, and as always, this is just information I use to inform what I put online, and which services I utilize or stay away from. This in no way constitutes legal advice, and you should not take it as such.

HERE ARE SOME FREE*ISH RESOURCES for anybody who insists on maintaining some modicum of control over how their work; including how it's monetized, traded, and sold.

• Andrea Bartz is the named plaintiff in Bartz v. Anthropic, which I’ve written about here. She recently joined a fantastic writing podcast called “The Shit Nobody Tells You About Writing” (btw, if you ever want to go for something approaching traditional publication, this is a must-listen). She has great suggestions for different resources you can use that don’t suffer the Google Docs/Meta/Speechify problem (big fan of the private, “no AI” version of DuckDuckGo over here 🙋🏻‍♀️).
• In August or September (date is TBD), I’m presenting an informational session about how you can protect your IP from the INEVITABLE TECHNOLOGY of the TechOverlords. It’ll be live, unrecorded, and free if you need it (I’ll suggest a small donation to the independent writing consortium hosting it, but only if you can). If you’re interested in learning more, sign-up on my website contact form and I’ll make sure you get the information. Make sure to write “GENAI SUCKS” 😸 in the message box.
• As a reminder: Ghost and BlueSky do not suffer from many of these problems. Ghost is a NONPROFIT, it doesn’t even take your earnings if you decide to monetize your newsletter. BlueSky will not sell whatever you publish without your permission.

Next Time!

Next time, there will be two months’ worth of book reviews (it’ll be a lot, lol) and some more bookish and writing adventures. I can’t promise I won’t mention GenAI at all, but I do endeavor to keep it limited.

Thank you and as always, please reach out with your thoughts! Tell me I’m wrong! Call me a Luddite (this won’t hurt my feelings tho, just heads’ up). In any case, I’m always looking to banter on the subject.

Have a great week and read banned books.

LYLAS/B,
Charlotte

IG: @charlotte.chambers.writer
BlueSky: having-written.bsky.social