Meta pirated books to train its AI

There seems to be a precedent with tech companies that if you do a lot of illegal stuff in the beginning you can count on either failing before it matters or you can buy your way out of the consequences. Bonus points if you induce regulatory capture to make sure no one else can follow in your footsteps.

Please HN do your thing and prove me wrong or tell me the benefits to society outweigh the cons, because otherwise it's a depressing take.

Re: Meta pirated books to train its AI

#6

Post by bdangubic » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 2:24 PM UTC

mksreddy wrote: post #4

31337Logic wrote: post #2

Can we all agree to boycott these fuckers' services by now?

Instead use Chinese AI which pirated the same?

so that is what boycotting means - going to china eh? nice, count me in!

and between china and facebook, it is coin toss but I’d go with china :)

Re: Meta pirated books to train its AI

#7

Post by ilrwbwrkhv » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

"they trust me, dumb fucks" - mark zuckerburg

Re: Meta pirated books to train its AI

#8

Post by xyzzy9563 » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 2:26 PM UTC

upghost wrote: post #5

There seems to be a precedent with tech companies that if you do a lot of illegal stuff in the beginning you can count on either failing before it matters or you can buy your way out of the consequences. Bonus points if you induce regulatory capture to make sure no one else can follow in your footsteps. Please HN do your thing and prove me wrong or tell me the benefits to society outweigh the cons, because otherwise…

Downloading pirated material isn't illegal in the U.S., sharing it is.

Re: Meta pirated books to train its AI

#9

Post by dijksterhuis » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 2:28 PM UTC

mksreddy wrote: post #4

31337Logic wrote: post #2

Can we all agree to boycott these fuckers' services by now?

Instead use Chinese AI which pirated the same?

not using either is also an option.

Re: Meta pirated books to train its AI

#10

Post by lolinder » Sat, Mar 22, 2025, 2:30 PM UTC

> Bulk downloading is often done with BitTorrent, the file-sharing protocol popular with pirates for its anonymity, and downloading with BitTorrent typically involves uploading to other users simultaneously.

Isn't this a twofold misunderstanding of BitTorrent? I haven't used it much, but I've never believed BitTorrent to be popular for anonymity (is it even truly anonymous?), I thought it was popular because it makes downloading go faster by reducing bottlenecks. Also, choosing not to seed a file is extremely simple in every torrent client I've seen, so it seems a bit of a leap to conclude that Meta seeded the pirated books just because the protocol supports it.

I'm far more concerned about the simple fact that they downloaded pirated books at all than I am about the protocol they used to do it.