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US Copyright Office found AI companies breach copyright. Its boss was fired

(www.theregister.com)
451 points croes | 3 comments | 12 May 25 09:49 UTC | HN request time: 0.416s | source
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mattxxx ◴[12 May 25 13:58 UTC] No.43962976[source]▶
Well, firing someone for this is super weird. It seems like an attempt to censor an interpretation of the law that:

1. Criticizes a highly useful technology 2. Matches a potentially-outdated, strict interpretation of copyright law

My opinion: I think using copyrighted data to train models for sure seems classically illegal. Despite that, Humans can read a book, get inspiration, and write a new book and not be litigated against. When I look at the litany of derivative fantasy novels, it's obvious they're not all fully independent works.

Since AI is and will continue to be so useful and transformative, I think we just need to acknowledge that our laws did not accomodate this use-case, then we should change them.

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madeofpalk ◴[12 May 25 14:03 UTC] No.43963017[source]▶
> Humans can read a book, get inspiration, and write a new book and not be litigated against

Humans get litigated against this all the time. There is such thing as, charitably, being too inspired.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_songs_subject_to_plagi...

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1. jrajav ◴[12 May 25 14:38 UTC] No.43963509[source]▶
If you follow these cases more closely over time you'll find that they're less an example of humans stealing work from others and more an example of typical human greed and pride. Old, well established musicians arguing that younger musicians stole from them for using a chord progression used in dozens of songs before their own original, or a melody on the pentatonic scale that sounds like many melodies on the pentatonic scale do. It gets ridiculous.

Plus, all art is derivative in some sense, it's almost always just a matter of degree.

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2. FireBeyond ◴[12 May 25 19:37 UTC] No.43966745[source]▶
To the point that Billy Joel "famously" credited the songwriter for one of his songs ("This Night") as "Billy Joel, Ludwig van Beethoven".
3. johnnyanmac ◴[13 May 25 01:54 UTC] No.43969065[source]▶
> art is derivative in some sense, it's almost always just a matter of degree.

Yes, that's why we judge on a case by case basis. The line is blurry.

I think when you're storing copies of such assets in your database that you're well past the line, though.