# Outreach Letter: Scottish PEN

**Date:** 22 November 2025
**To:** Scottish PEN
**From:** Palimpsest Stewardship Council
**Subject:** Protecting Literary Freedom and Cultural Heritage in the Age of AI

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Dear Scottish PEN,

We write to you with profound respect for PEN's century-long commitment to defending freedom of expression, protecting persecuted writers, and promoting literature as a force for cultural understanding and human rights. Scottish PEN's particular dedication to Scotland's literary heritage—from Burns to contemporary Scots language writers—embodies the principle that literature is inseparable from cultural context and community.

## The Palimpsest License: Literary Freedom in the Digital Age

The **Palimpsest License** addresses emerging threats to literary freedom and cultural integrity in the age of artificial intelligence: the unconsented extraction of literary works to train AI systems that often strip cultural context, erase authorial voice, and commodify creative expression without benefit to writers or their communities.

This is fundamentally a **freedom of expression issue**—when AI systems train on writers' works without consent and generate derivatives without attribution or cultural context, they undermine writers' ability to control their creative voice and maintain connection to their communities.

## Why This Matters to PEN's Mission

### 1. Freedom of Expression in the AI Era
PEN has long defended writers' rights to:
- Control their creative expression
- Maintain authorial intent
- Protect against misrepresentation
- Preserve connection to their communities

AI training threatens these freedoms by:
- **Unconsented extraction** – Using writers' works without permission
- **Context stripping** – Removing cultural, political, and historical context
- **Voice appropriation** – Training AI to mimic distinctive authorial styles
- **Community erasure** – Severing connection between literature and its cultural origins

### 2. Protecting Minority Languages and Cultures
Scottish PEN's commitment to Scots, Gaelic, and minority language literatures makes AI training particularly concerning:

**Scots Language:** AI trained on Scots literature may:
- Homogenise regional dialects into "generic Scots"
- Strip cultural context from language use
- Generate "Scots" text without understanding cultural meaning
- Appropriate linguistic innovation without crediting originating writers

**Gaelic:** AI systems may:
- Extract limited Gaelic literary corpus without community consent
- Generate "Gaelic" content without cultural competence
- Undermine revitalisation efforts by flooding markets with AI-generated material
- Appropriate cultural narratives without indigenous community permission

**Minority voices:** Migrant writers, diaspora communities, and marginalised groups face:
- Cultural appropriation at scale
- Loss of community control over narratives
- Commodification without benefit-sharing
- Homogenisation of distinctive cultural voices

### 3. Writers at Risk and Censorship
PEN's core mission includes protecting writers facing persecution. AI training creates new risks:

**Pseudonymous and exile writers** may:
- Lose anonymity if AI training reveals stylistic patterns
- Face exposure when AI-generated content mimics their protected voices
- Encounter attribution confusion that compromises safety

**Censored works:** Literature suppressed in authoritarian contexts may be:
- Extracted for AI training without exiled author consent
- Stripped of political context that made it dangerous to publish
- Commodified without benefit to authors or resistance movements

**Testimony and witness literature:** Works documenting human rights abuses may be:
- Used to train AI without survivor consent
- Decontextualised from their truth-telling purpose
- Appropriated for "trauma aesthetics" without ethical frameworks

### 4. Scottish Legal Context
Palimpsest's use of **Scottish courts for enforcement** is strategically significant:
- Scotland's distinct legal tradition provides unique protections for moral rights
- Scottish cultural heritage law may offer stronger protections for community-based works
- Edinburgh's international literary heritage (UNESCO City of Literature) positions Scotland as a natural venue for literary rights advocacy
- Scots law's European orientation aligns with GDPR and EU AI Act frameworks

## How Palimpsest Protects Literary Freedom

### 1. Informed Consent as Expression Control
Writers explicitly control whether their works train AI systems—parallel to PEN's defence of writers' control over their own expression.

### 2. Cultural Context Preservation
Palimpsest mandates preservation of:
- **Emotional lineage** – The symbolic, affective, and cultural meaning in literary works
- **Community origin** – Connection to specific cultural, linguistic, or regional communities
- **Political context** – The circumstances that shaped a work's creation and meaning
- **Linguistic specificity** – Regional dialects, minority languages, experimental linguistic innovation

### 3. Attribution and Voice Protection
Requires:
- **Authorial attribution** in AI-generated derivatives
- **Style credit** when AI mimics distinctive voices
- **Community acknowledgement** for collectively-held narratives
- **Pseudonym protection** where necessary for writer safety

### 4. Collective Cultural Governance
Supports:
- **Indigenous community control** over cultural narratives
- **Diaspora collective licensing** for community stories
- **Linguistic community rights** (e.g., Gaelic writers collectively managing AI training permissions)
- **Solidarity licensing** enabling writers to support one another's cultural protections

## Scottish Literary Heritage and AI

### Case Study: Burns and Public Domain Works
Even works in public domain merit cultural protection:

**Scenario:** An AI system trained on Robert Burns generates "Burns-style" poetry for commercial greeting cards, stripping away cultural context, Scots language authenticity, and connection to Scottish national identity.

**Palimpsest approach:** While copyright has expired, cultural heritage protections can require:
- Acknowledgement of Burns and Scottish cultural heritage
- Respect for Scots language integrity
- Community consultation (e.g., Burns societies, Scottish cultural organisations)
- Revenue sharing with Scottish cultural heritage initiatives

### Contemporary Scots Language Writers
**Scenario:** Contemporary Scots language poetry is extracted to train AI "dialect generators" that produce "authentic Scots" text for marketing purposes, without writer consent or cultural community benefit.

**Palimpsest protection:** Requires consent, cultural context preservation, and community benefit-sharing—protecting both individual writers and the Scots language community.

### Gaelic Literary Revival
**Scenario:** The limited corpus of contemporary Gaelic literature is used to train AI translation and generation tools without consultation with Gaelic writers or cultural organisations.

**Palimpsest protection:** Enables collective Gaelic literary community consent mechanisms, ensuring AI use supports rather than undermines language revitalisation.

## Legal Framework

Palimpsest operates under:
- **Primary jurisdiction:** Netherlands (strong moral rights tradition)
- **Enforcement:** **Scottish courts** (particularly significant for Scottish PEN)
- **Bilingual:** Dutch + English (with provisions for minority language protections)
- **Cultural heritage focus:** Designed for works with symbolic, community, or cultural significance

The **Palimpsest Stewardship Council** welcomes **Scottish cultural heritage advocate** representation.

## Proposed Collaboration with Scottish PEN

### 1. Literary Freedom Advocacy
Collaborating on:
- **International PEN initiatives** on AI and freedom of expression
- **Scottish Government consultations** on AI, culture, and creative industries
- **UNESCO City of Literature** advocacy for literary heritage protection
- **EU AI Act** implementation in UK/Scottish contexts

### 2. Minority Language and Cultural Protections
Developing frameworks for:
- **Scots language AI training ethics** – Community consent mechanisms
- **Gaelic literary protection** – Cultural heritage safeguards
- **Migrant and diaspora writers** – Cultural context preservation
- **Indigenous storytelling** – Collective governance models

### 3. Writers at Risk
Exploring:
- **Pseudonym protection** in AI training contexts
- **Exile writer rights** – Managing works across jurisdictions
- **Testimony literature** – Ethical frameworks for witness narratives
- **Censored works** – Protecting political context and author control

### 4. Educational Resources
Creating materials on:
- AI training and literary freedom
- Cultural context protection for minority language writers
- Collective licensing for cultural communities
- International rights management for Scottish writers

### 5. Scottish Literary Community Engagement
Working with:
- **Scottish Book Trust** – Author education initiatives
- **Federation of Writers Scotland** – Grassroots writer support
- **Gaelic Books Council** – Minority language protections
- **Scottish Storytelling Centre** – Oral tradition and cultural heritage

## Invitation to Collaboration

We would be honoured to work with Scottish PEN to:

1. **Present at PEN events** – AGM, Edinburgh International Book Festival, literary events
2. **Develop Scottish-specific resources** – Tailored to Scots law and cultural context
3. **Collaborate on international advocacy** – Via International PEN and European networks
4. **Support minority language protections** – Scots, Gaelic, and migrant literatures
5. **Edinburgh literary leadership** – Leveraging UNESCO City of Literature status

Would you be available for an initial conversation? We are based in Scotland and would be delighted to meet in person in Edinburgh or Glasgow, or via video conference.

## Contact Information

**Palimpsest Stewardship Council**
Email: [contact information to be provided]
Repository: https://github.com/[repository-path]
Documentation: [documentation URL]

Thank you for your consideration. Scottish PEN has demonstrated that literary freedom requires both defending individual writers and protecting cultural communities. We aspire to extend those principles to the AI era, ensuring literature retains its cultural context, authorial voice, and connection to the communities it serves.

In solidarity for literary freedom,

**The Palimpsest Stewardship Council**

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## Appendices Available Upon Request

- Full text of Palimpsest License v0.4 (English and Dutch)
- Scottish legal analysis and enforcement mechanisms
- Minority language protection frameworks (Scots, Gaelic)
- Case studies: Writers at risk, testimony literature, cultural heritage
- Collective licensing models for cultural communities
- International PEN collaboration proposals
