Hacker News.

To help train AI models, Meta and other tech companies have downloaded and shared pirated books via BitTorrent from Anna’s Archive and other shadow libraries. In an ongoing lawsuit, Meta now argues that uploading pirated books to strangers via BitTorrent qualifies as fair use. The company also stresses that the data helped establish U.S. global leadership in AI.

  • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
    292·
    9 days ago

    They are saying that seeding is inherently part of torrenting, not that it’s fair use. I mean, at least they weren’t a leech.

    My stance is fuck the copyright companies and fuck Meta for everything they do except in this case, because seedings a good thing and so is Anna’s archive.

      • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
        5·
        8 days ago

        To be fair, I did say inherently part of. It would have been rude of them not to seed.

        • partofthevoice@lemmy.zipEnglish
          2·
          8 days ago

          Those bastards stole all our data! But hey, at least they seeded it. Would have been pretty darn rude, otherwise.

          • Grimy@lemmy.worldEnglish
            1·
            8 days ago

            I’m not pro-copyright. I actually steal content, as in pirate it and then watch it. I don’t consider it stealing to train AI on it.

            “Our” data implies we collectively own it, yet we don’t, copyright companies for the most part do.