I think this should be the reasoning politicians use to make AI companies owned by the public.
These AI models are nothing without all the data they were trained on. All this data is content produced by humans throughout history. AI is the ultimate product of thousands of years of human progress. Why should we allow corporations to be the primary beneficiaries of this?
Agreed… the problem is that the damage is already done and there’s no way to really make it right to the copyright holders so mandating that all AI models and their weights should be treated as public domain would at least help a bit.
It actively prevents companies like Disney from using AI generation tools to stamp out movies like assembly line products. They can’t afford to have their movies become public domain at release.
It won’t protect jobs in advertising, because a lot of companies won’t care if their ads become public domain. This might be a problem because a lot of actors get their start in ad bits, and a lot of graphic artists make a living on ad images.
Ii think it’s an issue so long as private companies are profiting off the works of other people. If this is public (like a utility of some sort), I’m not sure the copyright claim means as much. I’m sure it would need to be handled in a way still.
AI companies spent years treating copyright like a Terms of Service box nobody reads. Now a court has suggested that »we copied it to build a competing product« may not magically become fair use because you sprinkle AI on top. Turns out disruption is slightly less fun when the disrupted people have lawyers.
Unfortunately, Congress will end up doing whatever its paid to do.
As far as I can tell, the 3rd circuit is just one step below the Supreme Court. So unless they take the case it’s pretty stuck. Congress would have to go above and beyond to change the existing laws to allow it.
Also with midterms coming up congress is going to have a harder time passing a law. Especially if the republicans lose the house or the senate. Then they’d have to get the democrats and the republicans to play ball, vs just one currently.
Remember, Congress makes the laws that courts rule on.
Congress does change legislation for its buddies to get around the court system.
Gun manufacturers have their own little Congressional immunity from lawsuits, for instance, (PLCAA).
IMO Disney and other copyright holders have more lobbying power than AI companies at this time.
That said, damages of a winning suit will end up being minuscule compared the revenue these companies have made from said piracy.
This court finds AI guilty of copyright infringement.
The penalty will be… NOTHING!
A law is useless unless it’s enforced. We live in an era where courts say a lot of shit but the legal system doesn’t back it up.
Just like the tariffs, they will use this to steal our money … they will use tax money to pay the crony companies that play victim.
Worth reading the original opinion appealed here: great technical writing and explanation of reasoning by the judge
Thanks for the hint.
Immediately made me think of Betteridge’s law of headlines.
I will remain cautiously optimistic but until it makes it through Supreme Court it’s not a done deal.
This is great progress. Curious to see how the Supreme Court eventually rules
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