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Re:LWN is currently under the heaviest scraper attack seen yet by palmotea on Friday January 16, 2026 @05:02PM (#46652813)
> AI allows companies to resell open source code as if they wrote it themselves doing an end run around all license terms. This is a major problem.

Has it been adjudicated that AI use actually allows that? That's definitely what the AI bros want (and will loudly assert), but that doesn't mean it's true.

Re:LWN is currently under the heaviest scraper attack seen yet by redwall_hp on Friday January 16, 2026 @07:43PM (#46654164)
We're just seeing that the copyright emperor has no clothes: companies want to infringe upon others' rights through a copyright laundering machine, but of course will insist that the laundered code they use is their property, protected by the holy copyright cudgel.
Re:LWN is currently under the heaviest scraper attack seen yet by Sharlin on Friday January 16, 2026 @05:33PM (#46653113)
I don't think so. Because LLMs aren't legal persons (yet?!), they can neither have copyright to anything nor violate someone else's copyright. IANAL but the most reasonable legal interpretation is likely that any IP violations are actually committed by whoever it was who asked an LLM to "rewrite" something in a way that obviously counts as a derived work rather than a cleanroom implementation.
Re:LWN is currently under the heaviest scraper attack seen yet by jacquesm on Saturday January 17, 2026 @06:46AM (#46657274)
Correct.
Re:LWN is currently under the heaviest scraper attack seen yet by jacquesm on Friday January 16, 2026 @07:20PM (#46653995)
You are misinterpreting my use of the word 'allow'. Think of it as 'enables' or 'makes it possible'. It is fairly obvious that AI does not grant permission as well as that there was no reference to any legal proceedings.