Consider an AI chatbot platform. If this platform doesn’t allow users to create characters (that are stored on their centralized service) that infringe IP, but allows users to import character definition files that do so from external sites (that are created by community members, and may contain copyright-protected characters), without permanently storing (or storing for private use), is the owner responsible for IP infringement?
IANAL but one would sau , “It depends.”
Questions in capitalist systems should always start with money. Does anyone profit or lose perceived value by the uses described? If yes, the plaintiff has the beginning of a case
is the owner responsible for IP infringement?
In general, the platform owner is required to assist copyright owners with asserting their rights.
If the platform is large enough to be a gatekeeper, the owner is additionally required to actively perform extensive checks and actions regarding several kinds of violations.
Yes, as long as we live in a world where laws are constantly bent in favor of the ruling class.
OP, please reword to be an open ended question.
If this is in the US section 220 makes a distinction for sites that have curation or a say in what’s posted vs those that don’t. Usually there’s some liability if the site creates or selects the things that are posted. But usually either way the site would have to comply with a valid takedown request from the rights holder if they don’t want to get sued.
It’d be interesting to see how something like Hyphanet (nee Freenet) interacts with such a requirement, as data is stored in a redundant distributed hash table that spans the whole network, there’s no way to contact the operator of a given node, redundant storage of data, and no real mechanisms for taking any content off the DHT once uploaded.
