this post was submitted on 02 Sep 2026
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[–] CaptPretentious@lemmy.world 8 points 12 hours ago

This just in... I think I'm going to start training my own LLM on various movies, TV shows, and music. US government said it was ok.

Peak capitalism, steal everything from the masses, remix and regurgitate it so no one is the wiser, then sell it back to them via a subscription model.

Makes me sick.

[–] isekaihero@ani.social 13 points 16 hours ago (2 children)

Rules for thee, not for me.

Pirating anything isn't illegal anymore. If the government can pick and choose people and groups who don't have to pay for patent or copyright, then there are no patents or copyrights.

[–] scutiger@lemmy.world 4 points 13 hours ago

To clarify, this is the government's position, not the law. This hasn't been officially ruled on yet.

In a lawsuit that The New York Times filed against OpenAI, the Trump administration has contributed a 20-page brief in defense of the ChatGPT maker’s unlicensed use of copyrighted material to train its LLMs.

However, it's not looking promising in legal terms either.

[–] 7101334@lemmy.world 1 points 14 hours ago

Pirating was illegal? When?

[–] green_goglin@thelemmy.club 19 points 17 hours ago* (last edited 17 hours ago)

Aaron Schwartz’s prosecution was always bullshit. RIP.

[–] whotookkarl@lemmy.dbzer0.com 20 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Precedent that copyright is not legally enforceable

[–] NotEasyBeingGreen@slrpnk.net 21 points 18 hours ago (2 children)

Precedent that laws don't apply to billionaires.

[–] M0oP0o@mander.xyz 2 points 16 hours ago

Crime is legal now.

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[–] Grimy@lemmy.world 4 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 15 hours ago)

Precendent was already there. Copyright has never been enforceable when it's transformative. Collage is legal, so was training neural nets before the copyright industry saw money in it.

[–] Suavevillain@lemmy.world 5 points 15 hours ago* (last edited 13 hours ago)

It is crazy music samples have stronger laws for commercial usage than AI.

[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 6 points 16 hours ago (1 children)

So... pay for it? It's not like the money isn't there

[–] eleefece@lemmy.world 7 points 16 hours ago (1 children)
[–] grrgyle@slrpnk.net 3 points 16 hours ago* (last edited 16 hours ago)

True. Profit is about the only thing these companies will never generate, but there's still money being thrown at them, it's just being spent on bonuses, mergers, and data centers.

Scrapers could peel off 1B of that to pay for what they're taking (like the pay for antique, print only books—because they can't physically steal those) instead of just robbing the commons if they really wanted to, if they thought that anything they were doing was ethically defensible or financially sustainable. ___

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 32 points 23 hours ago (4 children)

which technically makes piracy legal because that's the gov endorsing piracy

[–] utopiah@lemmy.world 6 points 19 hours ago (3 children)

should update torrent client to say "LLM training agent" instead, legally safe /s

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[–] Amnesigenic@lemmy.ml 4 points 18 hours ago

Legal for them, not for us

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Peasants like us can contribute to global leadership by being wage slaves and cannon fodder

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[–] DeathsEmbrace@lemmy.world 4 points 20 hours ago (1 children)

Nah we might need to accept reality. You need to be rich enough to make some bullshit company that uses A.I. then you can pirate legally using that A.I. as an excuse.

[–] BilSabab@lemmy.world 3 points 19 hours ago

so Norm was right. ..

[–] wallwood@lemmy.ml 8 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

Chinese models like Kimi are already competing head-to-head with Claude Opus in term of capability. And the main reason that kimi isn't as widely used as Claude is because Chinese companies aren't burning investors money to keep subscription prices low. I wonder how long will this dominance can last. Since investor money will eventually run out. and once that happens, what plans do they have to keep competing with free open weight models that already closed the gap.

[–] FlyingCircus@lemmy.world 2 points 17 hours ago

The problem with capitalism is that eventually you run out of other people’s money.

[–] SocialMediaRefugee@lemmy.world 2 points 13 hours ago

Of course they did

[–] humanspiral@lemmy.ca 13 points 20 hours ago

There's not just a desperation for Skynet by US government, like protecting oil from EVs/renewables, this is also about creating new oligarchs to fund electoral results that oppress Americans/humanity.

[–] Lushed_Lungfish@lemmy.ca 7 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

"Retain"? What in the actual fuck are you talking about? You surrendered that ages ago.

[–] Unquote0270@programming.dev 3 points 17 hours ago

Gotta keep the voters believing the US is the best at everything.

[–] phutatorius@lemmy.zip 26 points 1 day ago* (last edited 1 day ago)

So it's eminent domain on other people's copyrighted content?

Gotta keep funneling money to those billionaires.

[–] DarkSideOfTheMoon@lemmy.world 5 points 17 hours ago

I am okay with that. As long we are consistent with the copyright law. If OpenAI can break copyright to make their own money, it should be legal to me too.

Laws should be the same for everyone and no one should be above the law

[–] pineapplelover@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 18 hours ago

Bro we lost global leadership in AI so what are you saying

[–] reddit_sux@lemmy.world 6 points 18 hours ago

I am pirating this book to train AI (Actual Intelligence).

[–] CosmoNova@lemmy.world 20 points 1 day ago (3 children)

To my understanding, and excuse me if I‘m wrong because I‘m not a lawyer but that‘s not what the fucking law says? You either uphold copyright law or abandon it. There is no middle way and if courts disagree with you, your stance doesn‘t really matter here.

[–] General_Effort@lemmy.world 1 points 12 hours ago

They got you hoodwinked there.

They don't like to talk about it, but the US founding fathers were raging leftists (although that terminology didn't exist yet). The framers of the constitution had no intention to create a class of intellectual landlords extracting rent from the people. That is why copyright is strictly limited in the constitution.

[the United States Congress shall have power] To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries.

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

The language is archaic. Useful Arts means inventions and Science means knowledge. The economic consequences of copyright are very much at issue.

That AI training is (generally) Fair Use is a no-brainer. It's actually much harder to justify copyrights for entertainment products.

[–] freedom@lemy.lol 11 points 23 hours ago (1 children)

You misunderstand. YOU can’t use the data. Heck, you can’t easily find it anymore either. They’re scanning all the books and ripping them up as we speak too.

Big companies CAN because they own YOU. Clear?

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[–] ContactClosure@lemmus.org 2 points 16 hours ago

Fuck the US government and fuck OpenAI

[–] 100_kg_90_de_belin@feddit.it 3 points 18 hours ago

Yeah, the forms of government propped up by capitalism tend to side with capitalism.

[–] AceFuzzLord@lemmy.zip 17 points 1 day ago

Remember that it's always morally acceptable to break in and destroy AI data centers. The only ones harmed are not people.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 18 points 1 day ago (10 children)

Firmly an example of capitalism cannibalism themselves.

It may not abolish copyright but it is causing cracks.

Copyright was always a scam, non personal information should be free. Multiple people can have the same good idea, walling of access to a good idea behind capital blocks human progress.

Before anyone says something, yes artists deserve to eat… just like everyone else. Being economically productive should not be a condition for that. Make your art for fun and enjoy the honor of being copied with a sidedish of UBI.

[–] CmdrShepard49@sh.itjust.works 3 points 18 hours ago (1 children)

If we didnt have copyright laws then the wealthy would just copy everyone's good ideas and ensure the people who created those ideas get little to nothing, like Amazon making their own versions of every popular item and selling it for less than the original product.

[–] webghost0101@sopuli.xyz 3 points 17 hours ago (2 children)

You must be joking, the vast majority of patents are owned by large corporations.

Can you give me one example of where copyright is protecting an average wealth citizen?

Enforcing copyright requires you to have the economic resources to create lawsuits when it gets infringed. Sometimes enforcing your rights can costs into millions of dollars. Infringers often have the resources to delay the legal case till you the rightsholder have no more money left to continue.

Places like china don’t care about it either and they will just copy and sell on the western market anyway.

Some sources for the later

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uYHIJtQxbzw

https://qz.com/771727/chinas-factories-in-shenzhen-can-copy-products-at-breakneck-speed-and-its-time-for-the-rest-of-the-world-to-get-over-it

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[–] eicker@lemmy.world 167 points 1 day ago (9 children)

Trump’s government siding with OpenAI is peak MAGA economics: copyright is sacred until Silicon Valley needs millions of other people’s books, articles and art for free. Then suddenly property rights become an annoying obstacle to »winning the AI race.« Apparently America First now means AI companies first, creators somewhere near last.

[–] wonderingwanderer@sopuli.xyz 2 points 17 hours ago

And then cries when other countries do it to them

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