[russellbeattie]

An important part of the opinion (on the wiki page you linked to) is completely missing in the case of AI datasets:

> It generates new audiences and creates new sources of income for authors and publishers.

This is definitely not the case for artists and photographers, who don't benefit at all from the transformative nature of the AI output, and in fact are significantly harmed since it dilutes the uniqueness of their work by allowing anyone to imitate their style. Though to my knowledge "style" isn't protected by copyright - only trademark - I can't imagine there won't be lawsuits about this in the future.

That one artist who complained that people can't find his original work online now because of so many imitated pics is definitely exhibit A in terms of direct harm.