In order to help train its AI models, Meta (and others) have been using pirated versions of copyrighted books, without the consent of authors or publishers. The company behind Facebook and Instagram faces an ongoing class-action lawsuit brought by authors including Richard Kadrey, Sarah Silverman, and Christopher Golden, and one in which it has already scored a major (and surprising) victory: The Californian court concluded last year that using pirated books to train its Llama LLM did qualify as fair use.
You’d think this case would be as open-and-shut as it gets, but never underestimate an army of high-priced lawyers. Meta has now come up with the striking defense that uploading pirated books to strangers via BitTorrent qualifies as fair use. It further goes on to claim that this is double good, because it has helped establish the United States’ leading position in the AI field.
Meta further argues that every author involved in the class-action has admitted they are unaware of any Llama LLM output that directly reproduces content from their books. It says if the authors cannot provide evidence of such infringing output or damage to sales, then this lawsuit is not about protecting their books but arguing against the training process itself (which the court has ruled is fair use).
Judge Vince Chhabria now has to decide whether to allow this defense, a decision that will have consequences for not only this but many other AI lawsuits involving things like shadow libraries. The BitTorrent uploading and distribution claims are the last element of this particular lawsuit, which has been rumbling on for three years now, to be settled.
I’m getting the feeling that the average Lemming is a pro-piracy advocate only for as long as it’s them financially benefiting from it but the script interestingly flips when a company they don’t like does the same thing.
If money wasn’t an issue, there’s be no reason to pirate anything. It’s a financial decision. There’s no practical difference between earning fifty bucks and saving that much - in both cases you’re left with 50 more bucks to spend.
There’s a pretty big difference in scale, and the perpetrator, and whether or not they’re benefiting monetarily, and much more.
Stealing is wrong whether it’s for personal or business use. Which one is more wrong is besides the point.
It’s not really beside the point, from most reasonable perspectives. A multi-billion-dollar company enriching itself on the backs of starving authors so that it can go on enriching itself on the backs of its users is significantly different from a small number of comparatively destitute individuals stealing some temporary enjoyment for themselves. They are both wrong, but the discussion is utterly useless if you don’t talk about the harm involved and who benefits.
I don’t really see that difference there. Of course the difference in scale is massive when you compare a multi-billion company doing it to an individual, but what about the harm when everyone does it as individuals versus one big company doing it? I don’t think the difference matters anymore at that point.
Doing something morally wrong can’t be justified just because only a small number of people are doing it. You wouldn’t use that defense for any other immoral behavior either. Me dumping my car’s old motor oil into the woods is still bad even if I’m the only one in my country who does it - and if I then go ahead criticizing a drilling company for causing an oil spill, I’d be just as much of a hypocrite.
I fundamentally disagree with both your premise and your example’s conclusion. I’m not saying that it can be justified, though; just that it must be contextualized differently. To wit: it would be right for you to criticize them even if you are being hypocritical. You have far fewer resources to dispose of that oil. Your business model is not predicated upon handling oil well. You are not enriching yourself at the cost of others. And yes, there may be others doing it as well, but the combined impact of every individual doing it is almost certainly a tiny fraction of the company doing it.
I feel you have it the wrong way around. The “average Lemming” is pissed, because private piracy is prosecuted and punished while Meta’s is not.
I, for once, couldn’t care less whether Meta pirates the shit out of all the books if I am allowed to do the same ¯\_(ツ)_/¯
That at least would be a morally consistent stance and I have no issue with that. I’m talking about the people who criticize them for pirating while doing it themselves too.
A person downloading a pirated copy of a book w/o any DRM for their own leisure use on their own device is different from a multi trillion dollar corporation who is using those books to train an LLM to make AI Slop and make money from it w/o even crediting the authors for their work.
The difference is only in scale. Stealing is stealing independent of if it’s for personal use or not.
Nothing is being stolen here. Just an illegal copy. Copy is made for varying reasons here and have different moral aspects.
I’m using theft an an example due to it being the closest equivalent. The point still stands: if it’s wrong for an company to do it at scale, then it’s wrong when an idividual does it too.
Scale is not the only difference. The companies who do this end up making money with something trained on someone’s else’s work. If a regular Joe Shmoe pirates a book, they don’t earn anything with it.
That’s not entirely true either. There’s no practical difference between saving 50 bucks and earning 50 bucks. In both cases you’re left with more money to spend. Piracy is equally a financial decision even if it’s just for personal use. You’re saving what ever amount it would’ve cost to buy that media.
Little guys who get caught get the book thrown at them. But oligarchs get to carve out a legal right to pirate for profit. It’s this disparity people are pissed off about here.
I support piracy because I think:
I’m not arguing against piracy here. I partake in it myself too.
I am not saying you are. I am saying there are a lot of valid reasons and it is not as simple as “if I do it I am for it but when big bad company does it it is bad”.