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by abtinf 204 days ago
Likewise I think it is extremely dubious that models can be copyrighted at all, for the exact same reason you can't copyright a phonebook or database. The entire regime of claiming to release models under various licenses is bullshit, because you can't copyright rote transformations of things either.
2 comments
crazygringo 204 days ago
It's completely different from a phonebook or database, which are mere compilations.

If something is considered sufficiently transformative, then it can be copyrighted. If you do a bunch of non-trivial processing on a database to generate something new, you can copyright that.

And LLM training is in no universe a "rote transformation". It is incredibly sophisticated, carefully tuned, and results in a final product that could not possibly be more different.

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Legend2440 204 days ago
This is definitely going to be argued over in court at some point, along with many other questions about AI and copyright.

Speaking of which, why is it taking so long to get a supreme court decision on whether or not training counts as copyright infringement? The only court cases that have been resolved so far have settled on unrelated grounds without touching the core issue.

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