If you’re executing a NN algorithm in your mind, or via pen & paper, then you are copying from the training samples, because that’s what the algorithm does. During training you compute errors against the samples, and update your weights to reduce error. During inference or generation, you use the weights (the results you remembered across all your training data) to produce an output. When your training samples are clustered in the latent space, the network will only remember an average of the samples, but samples that are sparse and don’t have close neighbors are sometimes remembered verbatim because there’s nothing nearby to average from. You can legally run the algorithm all you want on your own. Once you run it and then distribute the output, it might be in violation of Copyright Law if you accidentally reproduced one of the samples. Same is true for traditional human learning, you can free copy ideas legally, but reproducing too closely something that someone else made may be against the law, even if it was accidental.
Thoughts are never illegal wrt US Copyright Law. It’s a straw man to insist on making this point.
> In other words, the end user of the model is the one to be held responsible if they reproduce and distribute the copyrighted material.
No, this is false because it is the creators of the model that 1) did not legally acquire the source material and 2) distributed the network that contains latent copies of the source material that end users can use to reproduce works from.
This is incorrect. As another poster mentioned, it is not illegal to read a stolen book. It is only illegal to steal the book.
Secondly the source material is acquired legally since it is open to consumption on the open internet.
Thirdly model does not contain “latent copies of the source material”. By using a simple test (currently legal standard) that if I showed you the node weights and counts of the network no person even trained in the art can identify it to a specific piece of work. Therefore it is at best a derivative, reasonably distinct.
Nope, this is strawman and continuing to demonstrate a misunderstanding of Copyright Law. There is no such legal standard, where did you get that? If the network can reproduce a work, then it does in fact contain a latent copy. Arguing that you can’t see it by inspecting node weights is straw man. You cannot argue that you’re not copying music if you use a new compression algorithm and then suggest it’s distinct and derivative because nobody can read the raw compressed data. That’s not how Copyright Law works. If you can approximately re-perform someone else’s work, you’re in violation. This is true even if you have to run a black-box program to produce the output.
> no person even trained in the art can identify it to a specific piece of work
Ironically, you’re actually admitting that even AI researchers can’t prove the network won’t reproduce someone’s work.
The rest you seem to now be looking for a snarky gotcha, which if you don’t want to have a discussion, then I’m uninterested in discussing further. I made clear above and in a sibling comment that remixes are gray area, and this question is complicated. That said, even if AI people do acquire source material legally, they are in fact copying it and distributing it, and that part alone can potentially violate US Copyright Law. This isn’t even up for debate, so I don’t know why you’re attempting to suggest otherwise. The lawsuits mentioned in the article were brought on evidence that networks violated copyrights of specific existing works, and lots of people have found specific examples of violations.
1) the creating of the model is does not violate copyright. Claiming otherwise means running same algorithm in meatspace would violate copyright laws, which implies thoughts violates laws which is absurd.
2) distribution of the model does not violate copyright laws because the models themselves do not contain latent copies of the work. The model itself is not the work nor a recognizable copy of it nor can it be reconstituted back to the work. It is a tool more analogous to photoshop where the tool can be used to reproduce copyrighted work, yes, by the end user (where I believe the responsibility lies), but the tool itself is not copyrighted work. Microsoft word can be used to generate copyrighted books, if I’m correct. Or I can hire smarter tool: a human writer to produce copyrighted works. Is the writer-for-hire illegal himself as a person? I believe the law will eventually understand this to be the case.
> nor can it be reconstituted back to the work
This is false. It has already happened multiple times that networks reproduced copyrighted material.
Secondly you seem to be conflating the “tool itself” to “what the tool can do” to be strongly equivalent. I.e if the tool has the capability to violate laws, then the existence and distribution of the tool itself also violates said law. (Not so)
> if the tool has the capability to violate laws, then the existence and distribution of the tool itself violates said law.
That’s right if you remove the word “existence”. Distribution of a NN model that violates copyright by reproducing copyrighted works is illegal. That part has been my point in this thread, it seems like you understand now and we agree.
It’s “existence” is not illegal under US Copyright Law unless you didn’t have the legal right to use the training material, and in that case it’s illegal to use the material whether you used a computer or your brain, it doesn’t matter how you created the neural network (or even whether you created a neural network), the violation there isn’t the act of creating the network, it’s the act of stealing and using material you don’t have permission to use.
This whole discussion would be a lot less frustrating for you if instead of making assumptions and logic arguments about brains and computers, you took some time to read the copyright legal code. https://www.copyright.gov/
Cars, phones, guns, knives (practically anything) can be used to generate activities that break the law. They are perfectly legal to distribute. The onus on the legality of the activity lies with the end user.
> If you understand that the model is a tool, and that as a tool it can be used to generate activity that can violate laws and be used for other perfectly legal activities, then as a broad principle the distribution of said tool is not a violation of said laws
That statement is incorrect, the logic is flawed. Just because a tool has both legal and illegal uses does not necessarily have any bearing whatsoever on whether the tool’s distribution is legal. Tools that are illegal to distribute can have legal uses, and that does not make them legal to distribute.
You are talking in circles. My last response here.