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A comment on On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train Midjourney. Parent comment

Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by Vvector on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @03:27PM (#39018668)
Are photocopy machines illegal? Are CD-ROM burners illegal? Both allow near-unlimited copies of copyrighted material at a scale much faster than a human could do alone.

The tools are not the problem, it's how humans use them.

[ Parent | on HN ]
Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by chlorion on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @03:35PM (#39018771)
>CD-ROM burners

They can be used in an illegal way if used to copy copyrighted material, yes.

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Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by Vvector on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @03:48PM (#39018917)
Same as an LLM, they can be used in an illegal way if used to copy copyrighted material. So I can't tell it to reproduce a copyrighted work. But it can create new material in the style of another artist.
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Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by chlorion on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @06:08PM (#39020483)
The difference is that the LLM is still copying copyrighted material in your case, but if I burn a Linux ISO, that is not happening.

You do not have to produce an exact copy of something to violate copyright, and I think anything the LLM outputs is violating copyright for everything it has ever trained on, unless the operator (the person operating the LLM and/or the person prompting it) has rights to that content.

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Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by squidbeak on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @04:00PM (#39019075)
And are the burners themselves illegal because you can name illegal uses for them?
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Re:On being listed as an artist whose work was used to train... by chlorion on Tuesday January 16, 2024 @06:19PM (#39020583)
No, and I don't think anyone is arguing that LLMs should be illegal either.

I personally am not against LLMs training on things the operator has rights to, and even training on copyrighted things, but I am against it laundering those things back out and claiming it's legal.

[ Parent | on HN ]