Meta’s latest legal wheeze is to insist that pirating books is fair use, actually

https://www.pcgamer.com/software/ai/metas-latest-legal-wheeze-is-to-insist-that-pirating-books-is-fair-use-actually/

30 Comments

  1. From the article:

    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.

  2. Ok-Charge-6998 on

    Now now guys, hear me out. Let them cook. We might end up with copyright laws that aren’t fucking ridiculous.

  3. Guilty-Mix-7629 on

    “But if YOU do it, we will sue your family into oblivion and ruin your life!”

  4. If they didn’t pay for a copy, it’s theft.

    If they paid for a single copy, personally for me that’s a gray area.

    Should have worked out a deal with the publisher and author for use as training data, that would be the best solution.

  5. Time to pirate all books, music & movies, apparently it’s legal when you use it for AI

  6. You guys don’t get it. It’s morally acceptable if you have a lot of money. It’s only evil when you don’t.

    If you can afford the punishment then it’s just an expense.

  7. Something will get them, eventually. Nearly happened with Cambridge Analytica and the 30 year FTC consent decree that I’m sure MAGA isn’t enforcing fully. You can’t be this nasty on so many fronts and get away with it forever.

  8. splendiferous-finch_ on

    If I register a LLC with my name and appoint myself as CEO does that make me above the law???? Sweet…

  9. ComfortableBuyer2902 on

    They are walking where Google tried to walk a few years back.

    Testing the waters of the digital millennium copyright act.

  10. “I know buying and selling hard drugs is illegal, but it’s okay because I’m just using it to train AI.”

  11. In a world where the corporations took everything from you only to force you to pay for various services to get the media you want along with commercials, I say AHOY! 🏴‍☠️

  12. Aka we’ve been pirating all the books and it would be really annoying to have to pay for it…

  13. I think that Picard image perfectly captures how a significant amount of people feel about that argument being used. I don’t think Meta will win.

  14. Riversntallbuildings on

    I’m hoping that Donald Trumps hatred of Jeff Bezos makes him expand the digital library system in the U.S. nationally. There is zero reason that we can’t provide access to books older than 7 years old for everyone.

  15. Huh. Where’d those authors who tried to burn down The Internet Archive go to? Surely *they* would be very mad and rally all the major book publishers together again to put a stop to this, right?