[Lex Computer & Tech Group/LCTG] AI being attacked, sort of

[Robert Primak]

 Interesting article.
Key phrase: "book-pirating websites". That is knowingly using pirated content. Case closed, legally.

“Would people be less angry with me if I bought a copy of each of these books?” Smith wonders out loud as we talk over Zoom. “Yes,” I say.  

This guy clearly was never taught how authors make money. If you reduce the number of copies of a work sold in any way, you are on shaky ground. Use your scrapings (except for brief passages quoted for academic or critique/review purposes) for any commercial purpose, and you (probably) are over the line. But I'm guessing they don't teach copyright law in computer programming and engineering curricula. 
I am not familiar with SciHub or LibGen or the issues raised by their activities. I suspect these sites differ from true pirate sites in that they are academic in their purpose, not commercial. My suspicions are bolstered by this quote:

“I’m not against all data scraping,” Devin Madson says. “I know a lot of academics in digital humanities, and they do scrape a lot of data.” 

While it isn't settled law, I think the "fair use" doctrine is not applicable in full to this incident. I do note with some interest that many authors are now insisting on clauses in their contracts with publishers explicitly forbidding the use of their works in training AI and LLM products. And I also note that some publishers are refusing to include this language in their contracts with authors. 
-- Bob Primak 
    On Tuesday, August 15, 2023 at 10:48:31 AM EDT, John Rudy via LCTG <lctg at lists.toku.us> wrote:  
 
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A very interesting article from WIRED on some issues around data scraping

https://www.wired.com/story/prosecraft-backlash-writers-ai/?bxid=5bf82a6624c17c5aa3198362&cndid=28192571&esrc=VERSO_NAVIGATION&mbid=mbid%3DCRMWIR012019%0A%0A&source=Email_0_EDT_WIR_NEWSLETTER_0_DAILY_ZZ&utm_brand=wired&utm_campaign=aud-dev&utm_content=WIR_Daily_081423&utm_mailing=WIR_Daily_081423&utm_medium=email&utm_source=nl&utm_term=P4

  

John Rudy

  

781-861-0402

781-718-8334  cell

13 Hawthorne Lane

Bedford MA

jjrudy1 at comcast.net



  
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