Training AI models on copyrighted works is "squarely what transformative use is," EFF’s Tori Noble told Reason - these are "general purpose tools" and "exactly the kind of creation that copyright is designed to foster.” https://reason.com/2026/09/04/doj-says-barring-ai-training-on-copyrighted-material-could-severely-hamper-tech-progress/
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@eff This is a profoundly disappointing take by the EFF.
@eff
What
The
Fuck
I'm stunned. This is the last organization I expected to take a stance against individuals and placate to the authoritarians.
@eff This is NOT all that is going on, EFF account-minder, and I reject your softened and euphemized framing of this issue. This isn't about "training" or "transformation" or any positive purpose, it's about capturing and destroying information, grabbing the books and other works and stuffing them into the machine and then making sure nobody else can use the stuff for their own rackets.
This is a fraud. The entire #tech sector is consecrated to CHEATING. You can't honestly say that there's a positive "transformative" purpose in the GenAI obsession.
There's no reason at all at work. Their thing isn't an "AGI superintelligence" and they know it. When do we stop pretending that this is just kind-hearted software engineers wanting to change the world? They exist, but not anywhere powerful in U.S. business or technology.
@eff oh, AI is transformative alright. it's transforming earth into a hellscape even faster than it already was.
who has access to everything they stole, anyway? if their stolen shit leaked, who would get in trouble? no one?
@eff Burn in hell, you fascist backstabbers.
@eff regurgitating content in a statistically probable manner is not transformation. Transformation requires intent.
Robut has no intent.
There is case law on this already.
Please unfuck yourselves.
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![A cartoon of a barn amongst trees with a girl anthropomorphic animal in the middle.
Everything (including the house and gatepost) have faces that are gagging.
Captioned [everything gags]](https://mediacdn.aus.social/media_attachments/files/117/216/035/120/052/004/original/20590a37236ddbc5.jpg)
@eff fuck 'tech progress', it's.progressed enough.
@eff This is exactly the kind of creation copyright exits to protect from. Fuck off.
@eff I disagree. To my mind, 'transformative' requires human intent.
@eff boooooooooooooo
@eff no human = no intent = no transformation
eff y'all done fucked up
@eff "Billionaires stealing creative work is fine" is a stance you can take, I guess.
It's a bad stance, but you can take it.
@eff yeah, that's an unfollow for me. Eat farts and beat street.
@eff Unfollowing, removing from annual donation list
@eff What about “Purpose and character of the use, including whether the use is of a commercial nature or is for nonprofit educational purposes”?
@eff I didn't have "EFF being deeply corrupt in the stupidest way imaginable" on my bingo card
I hope that boot tastes good
@eff Hello! Fuck you.
@eff So... fuck the planet right? I mean, you're putting your support behind what's already causing massive amounts of pollution and political corruption (municipal up to executive) across the country.
I donated to you guys a long time ago. I wish I could get a refund all these years later.
@eff I've been donating monthly since 2017. You just lost my support.
https://supporters.eff.org/donate/recurring for anyone else that needs to cancel.
It's so cool to watch every institution I've trusted bend the knee and kiss the ring of pedophile techbro fascists, one right after the other.
Please consider the last donation that I sent to EFF to be the LAST donation that I send to the EFF.
@eff Well wont be donating to EFF any longer
@eff I am increasingly feeling like D-Fens in the fast food restaurant asking „ Can anybody tell me what's wrong with this picture?“.
Can anybody explain to me why hip-hop artists and other musicians have been sued into the ground for ten second samples instead of being lauded for creative transformative use?
Extremely Fucking Foolish
@eff The irony here is that this is the same EFF that has worked to liberalize copyright law, this lawsuit being no different. Unpopular as AI training may be, I am a bit surprised to see the pushback to the EFF's actions (which honestly looks like a coordinated, corporate-backed effort to shore up support for copyright maximalism), but I get why taking a principled stand is unpopular since it necessarily entails defending unpopular positions occasionally. Even Techdirt defends the practice.
@eff And be warned, "stealing" in the context of copyright infringement is industry propaganda, as is "piracy".
@Big_Blue_Gnu @eff I think people use the term "stealing" because AI is stealing their wages with the information it "learned" (stole) from them.
People are not defending copyright from human participants, but instead are pushing back on the very technology that took away the ability for them to learn and grow in the first place.
AI is an unfair game played by massive corporations, they are not paying their fair share to the real humans who made it, and instead are passing it off as their own (ie plagiarism).
I think a lot of the sentiment is about how AIs are effectively plagiarism because they steal the work without attribution and redistribute the accreditation of such work to the AI company.
@eff The EFF went asshole crypto / AI bro so long ago I forgot they had integrity.
😮 Seriously, is the organization that should be protecting our digital rights, now defending the abuse of extreme right billionaires, who are stealing our human creativity to make us all redundant?
@eff Uhm no? Training my own brain on copyrighted materials would land me in jail if I didn't pay for them... But the biggest companies get a free pass? I don't actually think this is the kind of "fostering" we want going on.
How is the EFF not on our side with this one?
@eff i cant believe eff is defending this.
@eff Much like how my tummy 'transforms' corn into a corn interspersed turd.
@eff Making theft legal for useless finance clusters (aka billionaires) is a general purpose tool? I think its a very specific and narrow niche that only enables billionaires. This is a very mid shitty take.
@eff i'm disappointed. i really thought the EFF of all people would've had creatives' backs on this
