AI industry horrified to face largest copyright class action ever certified (arstechnica.com)
from sabreW4K3@lazysoci.al to technology@beehaw.org on 08 Aug 18:40
https://lazysoci.al/post/31770618

#technology

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artyom@piefed.social on 08 Aug 18:47 next collapse

Never going to happen with the current administration. Just a big Dog and Pony show.

artifex@piefed.social on 08 Aug 18:51 collapse

It has to set some precedent though. Either there are valid reasons to violate copyright are there aren’t.

artyom@piefed.social on 08 Aug 18:53 next collapse

Does it?

artifex@piefed.social on 08 Aug 19:02 collapse

Ok reading a little more the class has been certified but it hasn’t gone to trial, so there’s still a possibility of a closed-door settlement of some sort, though given the number of parties involved that seems unlikely. Maybe I’m just being optimistic. But if it goes to trial and makes it to judgement there will either have to be cases where using copyrighted materials to train AI (which seriously how is that not for generating derivative works) is found to be ok, or copyright will be held sacrosanct and the whole gen AI industry will have to pay… something. Punitive damages would make the industry cease to exist overnight, and I’d bet most publishers would prefer a check instead.

Powderhorn@beehaw.org on 08 Aug 21:50 collapse

That presumes precedent still matters. cough Dobbs cough

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 09 Aug 03:30 collapse

Supreme Court: What’s precedent again?

TehPers@beehaw.org on 08 Aug 20:05 next collapse

As Anthropic argued, it now “faces hundreds of billions of dollars in potential damages liability at trial in four months”

Well sure when you potentially violate almost every active copyright for multiple kinds of media, you end up potentially being liable for some wild damages. That’s the whole point.

Whether or not the work was sufficiently transformative will be an interesting question of course, but they should have known up front that this legal battle was a risk that their business could need to face.

Womble@piefed.world on 08 Aug 20:42 next collapse

For all those cheering on the copyright mafia going after Anthropic, consider that some of the groups supporting anthropic against this massive overreach of "we get to decide how you use our works" include:

  • Authors Alliance
  • the Electronic Frontier Foundation
  • American Library Association
  • Association of Research Libraries
  • Public Knowledge

Maybe this is not such a great thing?

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 09 Aug 00:43 next collapse

Indeed. I want AI companies to get regulated into smithereens, but not through expansion of copyright law. There would be too much collateral damage, and it wouldn’t even work.

phoenixz@lemmy.ca on 09 Aug 15:41 collapse

Yet so far it seems the only real solution at hand. Under the Cheeto, AI companies basically have free reign to race for who gets to make the first Skynet, nobody cares anymore as long as it’s more more more, and the goal justifies the means. Sacrifice the environment, humanity, everything, as long as shareholders get a lot of money.

The copyright lobby, on the other hand, has been doing this shit since forever, I doubt things can get much worse on their side

u_tamtam@programming.dev on 09 Aug 04:47 collapse

It’s pretty simple: if Antropic wins, that’s the end of the US copyright law, replaced by the diktat of the tech bros (worse for artists, and for anyone else but the tech oligarchs). If Antropic loses, nothing changes and we get to fight the (comparatively tiny) copyright mafia for another day.

lime@feddit.nu on 09 Aug 07:13 collapse

if i understand us law procedures correctly it could actually strengthen copyright law by becoming a precedent

u_tamtam@programming.dev on 09 Aug 09:29 collapse

In which way do you expect this to strengthen copyright laws? Also, from the article, it reads like Anthropic implicitly admits to copyright infringement, and that their defence essentially boils down to “if you prosecute us, we will go bankrupt”. I don’t see how that flies, but then again, IANAL :-)

lime@feddit.nu on 09 Aug 11:32 collapse

i don’t know, but there have been cases in other areas where failure to convict have basically become grounds for not prosecuting those cases. again, i don’t know much about common law, it’s not used here.

Randomgal@lemmy.ca on 08 Aug 20:54 collapse

I hope you realize they aren’t fighting for the rights of artists. They are fighting for their exclusive right to exploit artists.

BadlyDrawnRhino@aussie.zone on 09 Aug 00:24 next collapse

You’re not wrong, but if they win against AI, all artists will benefit because of the precedent that it would set.

What I think will actually happen if this is looking to not go in the tech bros’ favour is that they’ll settle and make a potential deal with large copyright holders for ongoing usage, and that would screw individual artists.

Randomgal@lemmy.ca on 09 Aug 00:39 next collapse

For artists able to afford a lawsuit against a multimillion company.

No. It doesn’t benefit artists.

BadlyDrawnRhino@aussie.zone on 09 Aug 04:08 collapse

But the large corporations are handling that side of things already. If the lawsuit goes in the favour of copyright holders, AI companies would in theory have to do something to avoid using copyrighted material, or pay for the usage. Of course, there’s every chance that they may end up avoiding using copyrighted material from anyone big enough to fight back, and just profit off of the works of artists without the resources to stop them doing so.

Powderhorn@beehaw.org on 09 Aug 05:48 collapse

Still, artists will see nothing.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 09 Aug 15:40 collapse

If artists see generative AI companies going bust, that will be something.

Randomgal@lemmy.ca on 09 Aug 17:14 collapse

No thanks. I care about real benefits and systemic changes. Not fucking petty vengeance.

It’s literally worse than nothing because now all the time and effort used fighting for this was wasted.

LukeZaz@beehaw.org on 09 Aug 17:58 next collapse

If it ends the stupid AI bubble then I don’t think it qualifies as petty vengeance; that is some real change. There won’t be meaningful legislation to aid the day-to-day person against this garbage, no, but it’d still seriously reduce the degree to which this shit has invaded our lives.

floofloof@lemmy.ca on 09 Aug 18:04 next collapse

If artists get a break from competing against plagiarized AI slop, that’s not petty vengeance.

TachyonTele@piefed.social on 10 Aug 16:36 collapse

Everything must be perfect!

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 09 Aug 03:29 next collapse

all artists will benefit because of the precedent that it would set.

No, these protections exist to maintain profits of large corporations. Copyright, patents, and intellectual rights were created under the false pretense that it “protects the little person”, but these are lies told by the rich and powerful to keep themselves rich and powerful. Time and time again, we have seen how broken the patent system is, how it is impossible to not step on musical copyright, how Disney has extended copyrights to forever, and how the megacorporations have way more money than everybody else to defend those copyrights and patents. These people are not your friend, and their legal protections are not for you.

Womble@piefed.world on 09 Aug 15:46 collapse

It wont do anything of the sort. Even if you accept the premise that somehow artists are being exploited from learning from their previous works, all that will happen is the AI companies will shift out of America to a juristiction that doesnt value extracting rents from IP above all else.

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 09 Aug 00:40 next collapse

Absolutely. There’s not a good guy on either side here.

If AI vendors win, it’s basically this:

<img alt="" src="https://midwest.social/pictrs/image/cfef002c-58cc-4322-9322-9d7914c1b137.jpeg">

p03locke@lemmy.dbzer0.com on 09 Aug 03:32 collapse

So, use and support open-source AI models.

kibiz0r@midwest.social on 09 Aug 04:12 next collapse

Licensing is the least of my objections to the gen AI plague.

megopie@beehaw.org on 09 Aug 14:08 collapse

open sourcing doesn’t effect the core issue.

npdean@lemmy.today on 09 Aug 06:47 collapse

Still better than blatant theft

interdimensionalmeme@lemmy.ml on 09 Aug 07:47 collapse

Abolish the abomination known as intellectual property
I hope both sides straight up die as a result of this
The end of the intellectual “property” regime
making infinite things artificially scarce
cannot possibly come soon enough
What was “intellectual property” should instead be paid up front by the people who want it
the result should be entirely unburdened of any sort of property, royalty, strings and DRM
ready to be infinitely broadcast and available to all
We’re still going to want stuff and we’re going to pay for it
We’re not going to be vampirized by monstrous mice of the past
for 80 years after the author’s death
now I’m off to piss, in Walt Disney’s cryotank