This is more of an issue with copyright law and DMCA than AI.
Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
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Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#72I wonder if there's something common between crypto and AI leading to the cloud of grift and predation around the ecosystems and common uses of the respective technologies. Or if this is where society is at now and it will happen with any new technology regardless.
Both ideologies promise to replace social systems built around trusting people with technical systems run by machines, and in doing so they reduce people to the moral worthlessness of machines. No need to trust your shopkeeper to be honest or build a relationship with your contractor, the Blockchain/LLM will handle that interaction for you! Cry some more, artist, GenAI is inevitable so you're out of a job!
Naturally, the individuals which are attracted to such an idea tend to… not be the most… prosocial or empathetic bunch. And some fraction of those take that to the degree of engaging in actively predatory and abusive behaviors in order to amass their own wealth.
The hype cycle, and other prevailing economic conditions, are definitely a part of it too. But frankly, you don't see quite so many scams with other widely hyped technologies.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#73Earlier quoted context omitted.
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.
> there's still no way in hell they'd get 30,000 people inside
Yeah, I'm pretty sure that would be physically impossible, unless they are planning on hosting most of the conference on the grounds, parking lot and maybe surrounding streets.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#74This is so common, and has been for a number of years.
As an owner of a website with a lot of content published over the years, a copyright claim pops up with "settlement" offers between $200-$1k to make it go away.
50% of the time it's an outright scam like this.
45% it's legit, we pay the settlement, and a writer gets a reminder about citing images and copyright.
5% is the worst, where a photographer will have a open license like CC BY-NC, then a law firm will contact photographers with images licensed like that, and partner with them to send demand letters to businesses improperly using the open license and do the settlement shakedown. While technically in violation because we're a business with ad revenue, it's nefarious because it's exploiting nuances of open licenses and writers on schedule missing the NC part of the license review. We get it right most of the time, but mistakes happen. Feels dirty to leverage CC to make money doing copyright shakedowns.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#75I wonder if there's something common between crypto and AI leading to the cloud of grift and predation around the ecosystems and common uses of the respective technologies. Or if this is where society is at now and it will happen with any new technology regardless.
There are enough people desperate enough that they will take unusual risks. Some of these people will become successful. Others are the suckers who will spend their lives chasing gold but never reach it.
If they're all taking "risks", then by definition the result is luck/random. So then what separates your "successful" from your "suckers"?
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#76This is so common, and has been for a number of years. As an owner of a website with a lot of content published over the years, a copyright claim pops up with "settlement" offers between $200-$1k to make it go away. 50% of the time it's an outright scam like this. 45% it's legit, we pay the settlement, and a writer gets a reminder about citing images and copyright. 5% is the worst, where a photographer will have a op…
As a counter point feels dirty to abuse photographers not catching NC for you to profit.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#77Money is the root of all bullshit like this, right since the very first human civilization.
The requirement of money as the core instrument of survival should be abolished.
If people aren't raised thinking money is everything, maybe society as a whole will gradually chill out on scamming the f outta each other.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#78The 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…
Indeed, rule of law has been known to be a farce for some time.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#79Earlier 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…
> One of these bogus DMCA claims would be easily and cheaply dismissed by any competent lawyer. If you're a new small business owner how do you vet lawyers for competency? If you accidentally engage a less then competent lawyer who screws up, how does that impact the individual and company?
Working out whether a lawyer is good, and more specifically good for what you want, is difficult even for another lawyer.
People often ask me for recommendations of a lawyer outside my field, or indeed in my field if I can't help them because my firm is conflicted or for some other reason. The thing is I don't personally use lawyers, so I have only the vaguest idea. I can tell some things from firms' reputations and their websites, but even for me it is a hard call.
And the law firms I have most experience of in practice tend to be the ones which I would go out of my way to disrecommend :-).
So I agree, that is a problem. Particularly for litigation. Unless you are doing litigation a lot - which is likely to be bad news for you - you can't get experience of a lawyer and decide that you like them. Word of mouth is also rather less useful.
Re: Fake AI law firms are sending fake DMCA threats to generate fake SEO gains
#80Earlier 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…
When I used to appear in court a lot, I ran into plenty of intelligent people who managed to mess up badly because they didn't follow simple, clearly advertised, rules. So even though in theory it should be simple to do something, in practice people often get it wrong.
i.e. even where it isn't opaque, it is surprising how many people mess up.
(Of course that includes lawyers)