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Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

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Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#731
post #117

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Parent comment implies Swartz was guilty of some degree. I vehemently disagree with that.

> Parent comment implies Swartz was guilty of some degree as a constructive criticism, you might want to reconsider your interpretation of >"Remembering Aaron Swartz in this moment" -> Which was arguably more innocent — scientific papers. As in, both hold some degree of illegality (objectively), so when pointed that "he is guilty of some degree" is due to the jurisdiction laws (broken or not) regardless of societal/m…

> As in, both hold some degree of illegality (objectively)

What did Aaron Swartz do that was illegal?

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#732

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you plug a laptop into a closet at MIT to download some scientific papers you forfeit your life. In case anybody here doesn't know, that's a reference to Aaron Swartz, an activist (and Reddit co-founder) that was risking 35 years in prison and a $1 million fine just for downloading a lot of academic papers from JSTOR. He eventually took his life because of the pressure. May his soul rest in peace.

Thanks for sharing this. Reading his story is kind of insane honestly. He created the CC licenses which I did not know. What an icon, truly.

On that note, Lawrence Lessigs talks on copyright from that period are worth a watch https://youtu.be/9xbRE_H5hoU

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#733

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Suppose that the status quo is the worst option, the second worst is enforcing the bad laws against the big guys, the best is getting rid of those laws. Now, that might not be the case. Given the existence of bad laws , having someone who is able to break out of the bad cage might be better than if no one can, but let's consider what happens if we assume that it's worse. Regardless of how they're ranked relative to e…

I don't agree. Getting more comprehensive enforcement of laws in general against well-heeled players is a good thing. We would have a lot less bad law if laws were enforced more evenly, because people would more quickly see their true effects, rather than having to wait until companies exploited the loopholes in enforcement so egregiously. (I also don't agree that the only problem here is bad laws. Yes, some of the l…

> Getting more comprehensive enforcement of laws in general against well-heeled players is a good thing.

Whether something is good independent of what it takes to achieve it is a separate question from whether that's where you should focus your efforts.

> We would have a lot less bad law if laws were enforced more evenly, because people would more quickly see their true effects, rather than having to wait until companies exploited the loopholes in enforcement so egregiously.

Which is exactly why it's so hard to do it. The status quo is: Pass lots of laws that make everything illegal so that anyone without resources can be brought up on charges if they ruffle the wrong feathers. If you wanted to actually enforce all of those laws, they would immediately have to be repealed or everyone would be in jail. Which isn't in the interests of the people who want to keep them on the books to use for selective enforcement, so they don't enforce them that way in order to keep them on the books.

The consequence is that it takes even more political capital to have those laws rigorously enforced than to have them repealed, because then you have to fight both the big guys who don't want short-term enforcement against themselves and the autocrats who don't want to long-term have the laws repealed, instead of only the latter.

> I also don't agree that the only problem here is bad laws.

When laws are enforced against the little guys but not the big guys, it's usually because they're bad laws, because letting the rich openly get away with literal murder is highly unpopular.

The most significant category of good laws that big companies regularly violate with impunity is antitrust laws, but those also don't often get enforced against the little guy because the little guy isn't even in a position to violate them.

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#735
post #695

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The question you should be asking is, what do you want to do about it? Throw the people challenging the taxi cartels in prison, or get rid of the laws against fun lettuce?

Why isn't at least one of those things actually addressing (disbanding, regulating, whatever--left to people experienced in policy or with context to have some remediation plan) those taxi cartels' behavior?

The argument is that getting rid of the bad laws is better than enforcing them more rigorously. This can be applied to the laws propping up the taxi medallion cartels as well as the ones prohibiting personal drug use. Then anyone (not just Uber) could compete with them and thereby disband the taxi cartels previously using those laws to constrain competition.

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#736

I as a individual would be liable to pay ~1000$ of damages if I'd downloaded a movie in Germany or Poland and the publisher would get to me. I'm going to assume as it's a corporation, then the laws no longer apply.

That's okay, they should just charge The Zuck with it personally; I'd be fine with that.

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#737

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This argument ignores the fact that there were other alternatives to Uber at the time, ones that didn't break the law! Believe it or not, there were multiple ride hailing apps on the iPhone, but none were as great at accumulating capital or breaking the law without recourse.

The laws they allegedly broke were the taxi medallion cartel laws, which were the things keeping taxis terrible by limiting supply and competition. And those laws in general apply to the drivers rather than the ride hailing service. There is also a lot of ambiguity there, e.g. if you have a ride sharing service where people go on the app to find people to carpool with on a trip they'd be making anyway and then contri…

You understand they're a global company and broke many laws in many countries, right?

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#738
post #590

The more I learn about how AI companies trained their models, the more obvious it is that the rest of us are just suckers. We're out here assuming that laws matter, that we should never misrepresent or hide what we're doing for our work, that we should honor our own terms of use and the terms of use of other sites/products, that if we register for a website or piece of content we should always use our work email addr…

And if you were in any doubt before, this lesson is now exemplified by the holder of the highest office in the land and approved by popular vote. The rewards of acting ethically are, unfortunately, sometimes only personal. This must be a hard environment to raise children in, given the examples they see around them.

> approved by popular vote

Quibble: The majority of people voted against Trump, or at least not in his favor. He only got a plurality, not a majority.

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#739

I strongly urge people to read Thomas Babington Macaulay's speeches on copyright, its aims, terms, and hazards. Very well reasoned and explained. In particular, people often cited the case of authors who had died leaving a family in destitution, and claimed that copyright extension would be a fair way of preventing this, but in most cases the remaining family had never held the copyright; the author had initally sold…

> Thomas Babington Macaulay The one who got Hindu Sanskrit books translated in a horrible manner and then claimed: "I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But I have done what I could to form a correct estimate of their value. I have read translations of the most celebrated Arabic and Sanskrit works. I have conversed both here and at home with men distinguished by their proficiency in the Eastern tongues.…

I kind of hate it that the auto-complete in brain launched off in this direction:

> The one who got Hindu Sanskrit books translated in a horrible manner and then claimed: "I have no knowledge of either Sanskrit or Arabic. But

... Here's what they mean, from ChatGPT."

Re: Meta torrented & seeded 81.7 TB dataset containing copyrighted data

#740

Something tells me uncle Donald will exonerate his new favourite lapdog from any criminal or civil liability.

IANAL but the pardon power (A) only extends to criminal punishments, not civil liabilities and (B) copyright lawsuits can be launched by anybody, not just the Department of Justice.

So, barring further Might Makes Right shit--which I'm not willing to fully rule out--Trump can't fully shield Zuckerberg et al.

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