Thread

Microsoft exec called AI scraping 'the largest theft of labor in human history'

955 points · 841 comments · pluc

jacquesm · 1789726316 · focus · HN ↗
It's the robbery of all of our culture to sell it back to us at a mark-up. Crimes this large are crimes against humanity. So many people whose life's work got appropriated without consideration, compensation or consent it is baffling.
It is said that at the heart of every great fortune there is a great crime, so it should be no surprise that the most valuable companies on the planet will most likely result from this crime. And given that justice can be bought by those with the most money you can forget about anything coming of this.
1. dataviz1000 · 1789729938 · focus · HN ↗
  Owning ideas with copyright and patents is what separates the United States from communism.
  The first time a saw a documentary about Tetris it really hit me what communism is -- nobody owned anything they invented or created. [0] It was a long time ago and I remember feeling sad watching the story. In the Soviet Union, a group of ~15 people, Politburo, controlled everything including any thought written to paper.
  It is this one line, Article 1 Section 8 Clause 8, that separates the United States from the disaster that was the Soviet Union:
  > To promote the Progress of Science and useful Arts, by securing for limited Times to Authors and Inventors the exclusive Right to their respective Writings and Discoveries;
  I don't think it is far fetched to call ignoring and disregarding the Copyright Clause a communist revolution, violent or not. That is the one thing the communists -- there have been many over the years inside the United States -- would change to make the United States a communist country.
  [0] <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#Spread_beyond_the_Soviet_Union_(1985%E2%80%931988)" rel="nofollow">https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tetris#Spread_beyond_the_Sovie...
  1. vitorfblima · 1789730479 · focus · HN ↗
    In a communist society there is no profit (or incentive for), thus no need for copyright laws.
    It's not abolishing copyrights that would turn the US into a commie country, communism is about abolishing private ownership to the means of production.
    dataviz1000 · 1789731346 · focus · HN ↗
    You are implying I'm correct because abolishing patents thus private ownership turns the US into a commie country.
    card_zero · 1789732029 · focus · HN ↗
    Well it's worth reading the linked wiki article section, which includes a link to another article "Copyright law of the Soviet Union", flatly contradicting you unless you maintain that the USSR wasn't truly communist.
    echoangle · 1789733725 · focus · HN ↗
    > unless you maintain that the USSR wasn't truly communist.
    Didn’t they themselves say they were a socialist society on the path to communism?
    Does anyone think the USSR was communist?
    mulmen · 1789744758 · focus · HN ↗
    [delayed]
    vitorfblima · 1789734410 · focus · HN ↗
    The USSR was a socialist state, which is different.
    sicher · 1789737945 · focus · HN ↗
    And non-democratic.
    dataviz1000 · 1789732644 · focus · HN ↗
    In the United State, the individual or corporation owns the invention. In the Soviet Union the state automatically owned the invention. That clause is what ensures private ownership.
    The clause is what ensures profits from market sales or licensing of ideas go to the creator.
    Removing (or ignoring in the case of AI companies) that clause in the US Constitution is what abolishes private ownership.
    vitorfblima · 1789734592 · focus · HN ↗
    I have private ownership over many things that I've bought which are not inventions and are not infringing copyrights.
  2. tancop · 1789732781 · focus · HN ↗
    In the Soviet Union the state owned all media (de facto) and you had to get permission from a party official before you published or copied anything. It's not the same thing as a free for all.
    It's actually the first sentence from your quote. One state owned company had a monopoly on software exports. Soviet citizens were not allowed to write code and export it themselves, or import software from Western countries. They had heavy censorship and centralized control over everything.
    In a way it's the ultimate endpoint of copyright. One {person, state, company} owns everything and you have to ask them for permission to do anything with it.

Open on Hacker News to reply ↗

Unofficial Hacker News client; not affiliated with Y Combinator.