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Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

arstechnica.com

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Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#61

Post by jfengel »

ryandrake wrote: post #12
icedchai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, many folks will assume an "official" sounding message or call is actually legitimate. Especially if it's from someone calling themselves a lawyer. Next the AI law firms will be requesting payment in iTunes gift cards...

I think there is a belief (right or wrong) among a lot of lay-people and non-lawyers that the legal system is an opaque minefield of "gotchas" where if you don't file form 27B/6 within 30 days, with a specific magical incantation X written on it, and then appear before a judge and speak magical incantation Y, then gotcha! you lose! So any time something looks even remotely official, people panic and wonder which mine…

To be fair, I have heard that from a lot of lawyers. They say that any time you touch the legal system without a lawyer, you are setting yourself up for trouble.

This is not just self interest. There really are a lot of hidden traps. Words almost never mean what you think they mean. If they have a lawyer and you don't, you are taking a serious risk.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#62

Post by duskwuff »

bjterry wrote: post #60
duskwuff wrote: post #51

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Palace of Fine Arts is a theater, not an exhibit hall. It's a completely unsuitable location for a conference.

I don't think this is true. My startup had a couple desks in the Palace of Fine Arts when they had an ill-fated attempt to convert part of it to a co-working space. They shut down co-working to turn it into a full-time event space. The building is basically one giant room, with a raised mezzanine floating above part of the floor. It has one small permanent theater on the north end, and they convert the southern end i…

The event link makes it look like it's just referring to the theater. It even mentions a "door time".

Even if it is the whole hall (which used to be the Exploratorium, back in the day), there's still no way in hell they'd get 30,000 people inside. According to https://palaceoffinearts.com/info/, the maximum capacity of the facility is 5,000, and even that would be very crowded.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#63

Post by amenhotep »

ryandrake wrote: post #12
icedchai wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sadly, many folks will assume an "official" sounding message or call is actually legitimate. Especially if it's from someone calling themselves a lawyer. Next the AI law firms will be requesting payment in iTunes gift cards...

I think there is a belief (right or wrong) among a lot of lay-people and non-lawyers that the legal system is an opaque minefield of "gotchas" where if you don't file form 27B/6 within 30 days, with a specific magical incantation X written on it, and then appear before a judge and speak magical incantation Y, then gotcha! you lose! So any time something looks even remotely official, people panic and wonder which mine…

Very good choice of form.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#64

Post by johndhi »

gentleman11 wrote: post #2

The root problem is that the legal system is completely inaccessible and non-existent to individuals or small companies. Even to medium companies. Only mega corps and law firms can afford to use the legal system. Even big tech often avoids it because of the expense, but if they do use it, they’re going to win, 99.9% of the time because of their war chests So, people are semi defenceless when these things come up, and…

As a lawyer who has worked in and for big tech, we don't win 99% of the time. Far less. There are very well financed players and structural incentive that allow plaintiffs lawyers to win and take lots of money from big tech in the US.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#65

Post by johndhi »

Capricorn2481 wrote: post #41
antonvs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> completely inaccessible and non-existent to individuals or small companies. Even to medium companies. Only mega corps and law firms can afford to use the legal system. For individuals you have a point, but for small and medium companies this seems like an exaggeration. I've worked for several startups. The smallest was one that I co-founded with no outside funding - we maxed out at five employees, three of whom wer…

Aren't trademarks and patents exactly the type of thing that would need to be argued in court and therefore cost more money than most startups have?

Generally yes.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#66

Post by johndhi »

ToucanLoucan wrote: post #38
antonvs wrote: post #13

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> completely inaccessible and non-existent to individuals or small companies. Even to medium companies. Only mega corps and law firms can afford to use the legal system. For individuals you have a point, but for small and medium companies this seems like an exaggeration. I've worked for several startups. The smallest was one that I co-founded with no outside funding - we maxed out at five employees, three of whom wer…

I've always been a fan of the concept of simply billing the losing litigants the legal expenses of both sides when the case was obviously frivolous. Seems like it would shut this shit right down.

That's how the UK works. But making it that expensive to sue someone means it's harder to file meritorious or important cases too.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#67

Post by throwaway290 »

dudus wrote: post #6

I just signed up for this genAI summit but the lack of social buzz and the profile of the organizers give me a strange feeling. https://genaisummit.ai/#/ I'm afraid this is might be a fake conference created by AI. Am I crazy? I paid $500 for tickets. I almost signed up for the booth. I'll have to start emailing speakers for confirmation because it's not passing the smell test.

Fake conferences is not a new scam, I saw many of them in 2020 at least. Almost fell for one. It's sad and I feel for you if it's fake but it's probably not "created by AI".

(and it would be "created with" at best, it's people who do things)

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#68

Post by anileated »

spxneo wrote: post #48

seems like the biggest adopters of AI are spammers and criminals. Just like crypto

ML in various forms was used for different purposes for a while, but generative tools based on it got popular very recently.

They probably have potential to create value (maybe more than crypto?), but if the core feature is to emulate a human you can see that many uses would be malicious.

Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains

#69

Post by palmfacehn »

The automated threats from the 'legitimate' DMCA firms aren't much better. Typically they scrape and match by substring. As an example, if an unreleated PDF file's title/file name contained the name of a film as a substring and they'd send an DMCA complaint to the hosting provider.
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