Writers Guild Partners With Cloak To Block AI Scraping
The new partnership provides WGAE members with software tools to protect screenplays from unauthorized AI model training.
Updated on Oct. 20, 2026 in Artificial Intelligence
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The Writers Guild of America East has partnered with the software firm Cloak to provide writers with tools that make screenplays resistant to AI scraping. This initiative aims to ensure that creative works cannot be used to train artificial intelligence models without the authors' permission.
Why it matters
By shielding scripts from automated ingestion, the guild seeks to enforce intellectual property protections for screenwriters in an era of rapid AI development. This move follows years of advocacy regarding the ethical use of creative content in machine learning.
The Cloak software allows writers to render their scripts resistant to AI model scraping while maintaining original file formatting. Non-members may access this service by registering their scripts with the WGAE for a $10 fee.
The players
Writers Guild of America East
This labor union represents thousands of writers in film, television, news, and digital media across the United States.
Cloak
Cloak is a software firm that provides tools designed to protect digital documents from unauthorized data harvesting by AI models.
The details
The software prevents AI crawlers from effectively reading or processing the text within a document, effectively securing the intellectual property of the screenwriter. This partnership marks a strategic step for the guild in controlling how their members' work interacts with emerging technologies.
Timeline
2023: WGAE conducted a 148-day strike that included AI in negotiations.
July 2026: WGAE ended its 12-year partnership with the Urbanworld film festival.
October 20, 2026: WGAE announced the new partnership with Cloak.
The Tech Race
This partnership reflects the ongoing effort by creative unions to regain control over content distribution in an era dominated by large-scale AI training. It signals a move away from reliance on legacy intellectual property protections toward direct technical countermeasures against automated scraping.
WGAE members can now secure their drafts to prevent unauthorized data usage without needing advanced technical expertise. Non-members who want to leverage this protection must first register their scripts with the guild and pay the $10 usage fee.
The takeaway
Authors and creators are increasingly adopting proactive technological measures to protect their work from emerging automated threats. Implementing such tools can help writers maintain ownership of their intellectual property in an increasingly digital and AI-driven creative landscape.
Further reading
Learn more about labor and technology intersection in our Artificial Intelligence section.
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