There's AI slop and anti-AI slop [LWN.net]

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:08 UTC (Sat) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630)
In reply to: There's AI slop and anti-AI slop by mb
Parent article: Nesbitt: Protestware for coding agents

You may disagree with copyright law, but it is the law. If someone copies my creative output in a way that I have not authorized, then from my perspective, that is theft. And the law permits me to seek remedies (usually civil remedies, but criminal remedies in egregious cases.)

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There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:12 UTC (Sat) by bluca (subscriber, #118303) [Link] (4 responses)

Copyright law allows anybody to use any publicly available dataset to train models, in derogation to copyright protection. So quoting your own post:

> You may disagree with copyright law, but it is the law.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:30 UTC (Sat) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link] (1 responses)

> Copyright law allows anybody to use any publicly available dataset to train models, in derogation to copyright protection.

... in *some* jurisdictions. Not all.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:47 UTC (Sat) by bluca (subscriber, #118303) [Link]

Sure, the European Union is ahead of the curve. Seems unlikely others won't catch up at some point in the near future.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 22:20 UTC (Sat) by ballombe (subscriber, #9523) [Link] (1 responses)

My understanding is that this exception only applies to sui generis EU database protection, not to plain old copyright per se. Since database protection is specific to the EU, only the EU needed to add an exception.

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 31, 2026 8:33 UTC (Sun) by bluca (subscriber, #118303) [Link]

No, it applies to any training datasets, and the AI directive specifically references it for training LLMs

There's AI slop and anti-AI slop

Posted May 30, 2026 21:43 UTC (Sat) by pizza (subscriber, #46) [Link]

> You may disagree with copyright law, but it is the law. If someone copies my creative output in a way that I have not authorized, then from my perspective, that is theft. And the law permits me to seek remedies (usually civil remedies, but criminal remedies in egregious cases.)

I would be a lot less grumpy about everyone copying my publicy-available creative output if *I* wasn't stuck paying for it.

Theft

Posted Jun 2, 2026 23:00 UTC (Tue) by mfuzzey (subscriber, #57966) [Link] (2 responses)

Yes it's the law and you can seek remedies fine but that doesn't make it "theft".

For me theft is "the dishonest appropriation of property belonging to another with the intention to permanently deprive the other of it. " (UK theft act)

If I take your wallet or your car and don't intend to give it back then that's theft.
If I copy some art or (non open source) software you have created you still have it - sure you may suffer financially from my actions and you can sue me but not for theft but copyright infringement.

Theft

Posted Jun 3, 2026 15:01 UTC (Wed) by dskoll (subscriber, #1630) [Link] (1 responses)

Semantics. Either way, the victim suffers financially and the perpetrator unjustly gains. I'm happy to call that theft.

Let's stop here

Posted Jun 3, 2026 15:07 UTC (Wed) by jzb (editor, #7867) [Link]

This thread seems to have run its course. Let's end here.