A Poll On The Use Of AI Art In TAS Products

[Arkathan]

The nutty Ninth allowed AI to train on literature, because it was transformative. Others in the US and Europe have ruled on copyright.
One AI got slapped for using Westlaw footnotes in training.
So some AI companies have started CYA by seeking licenses for training.

The use of AI to replace humans in Humanities is nothing short of dystopian.
AI should be working on tech advances, especially in energy. THAT is how you truly free people. Unlimited clean, cheap energy.
Allowing AI to take all of the jobs worth doing simply makes everyone a slave to whoever is handing out the free stuff.

Don't think for one second that the people who want you under their thumb will refrain from using a complicit media to distribute deep fake videos as fact (as opposed to obvious satire) in order to control public opinion. They have already proven their proclivity to push lies for years after the documents exposing their deceit have gone public.

 

[rinku]

As a point, you can't prevent AI being trained on public domain material. Most stuff considered Literature is in that basket, as is the bulk of text produced prior to 1950. You either ban that use of AI outright, or not.

 

[Condottiere]

That particular nag has already bolted the barn, and then returned to burn it down.

China isn't particular about copyright, and the Americans have been bought off.

 

[Arkathan]

As a point, you can't prevent AI being trained on public domain material. Most stuff considered Literature is in that basket, as is the bulk of text produced prior to 1950. You either ban that use of AI outright, or not.

I think the cutoff is a little further back. Old School Mickey just recently went into Public Domain. I know Disney played shenanigans to delay it, but several authors I was looking for were still not public domain a few years back. And the ninth didn't limit the works to public domain, although other courts did.

 

[rinku]

Since it's usually based on date of death of the original author it can vary a lot. Tom Lehrer's 1950's and 60's songs would not be public domain for a long while yet, except that he released his catalogue to PD before his death in July 2025.

On the other hand, George Orwell died in 1950 and Nineteen Eighty Four (published 1949) passed into the public domain in the UK and Europe (+70 years from author death) from 1/1/2021, though it's still in copyright in the US until 2044 owing to the Disney shenanigans you mentioned. It became public domain in basal Berne Convention countries (+50 years from author death) twenty years earlier on 1/1/2001. Currently those include New Zealand and Canada. Australia went from +50 to +70 in 2004 but the change was not made retroactive, so Nineteen Eighty Four is also in PD here.

TLDR: I'll stand by my observation that the majority of text produced before 1950 is in public domain. But yes, there's still a lot that remains under copyright, especially in the USA.