from Hacker News

Suchir's Essay on Fair Use

by hgarg on 12/14/24, 4:16 AM with 14 comments

• by InfiniteVortex on 12/14/24, 10:11 AM

  I never knew him, but it’s incredibly saddening to see someone around my age take their own life, or at any age for that matter. He seemed like he was a bright soul who fought for what he believed was right. We need more people like that. They’re the ones who inspire others to enact change, even if we disagree with them. Rest easy, Suchir.

• by vouaobrasil on 12/14/24, 10:51 AM

  I think beyond technicalities, the spirit of "fair use" is to allow individuals to build upon the work of others, provide critiques, and clarify existing issues. And the reason why this is a "good thing" is that in society, we want everyone contributing their ideas to make an intellectually better world.

  In short, the true spirit of fair use is about people sharing their responses to the ideas of others. And the ultimate reason for that is that we want a free interaction of people.

  AI should not be considered under fair use at all because it doesn't propagate the responses and reactions of people -- technically AI, creates, but since the creations of AI are not expressions of the experience of a person or group of people. Instead, the only goal of AI is to take away the opportunities that people have to express themselves because those opportunities often came with a small payment.

  Therefore, even though at times AI might comply with fair use (and that's even be argued against here), whether AI violates fair use technically is not even the most relevant question. The question is, does AI violate the spirit of fair use? And the answer is unquestionably, yes. Fair use was designed to increase the production of works that reasonably include samples from other works for the express purpose of encouraging human creativity. HUMAN.

  AI is just a tool that big tech uses to tip the balance of society and take more than their fair share of wealth. It's a shiny toy that is amusing but not really of much benefit to society and it uses the technicalities of the law (such as fair use) to crush its true intent for selfish gain.

• by creative72 on 12/14/24, 7:01 PM

  Does UK or EU have "fair use" copyright laws? Also, it's a question of Pro-Privacy vs Pro-AI-innovation; finding the right balance between AI development and privacy is crucial.