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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fuck "tech progress".
@eff fuck off with that shit.
@eff Lot of folks who clearly didn't read the article are crashing out over this post.
@eff this is not the EFF I have known and loved. Wtf has gone wrong?
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@onepict It doesn't even make sense from libertarian perspective as GenAI/LLM dependence would hand over control and monitoring of discourse to giant tech corporations? On the other hand a lot of libertarians worship corporations and authoritarians so they never believed in individual liberty either.
@FediThing Yep, folks like that want power for themselves.
Whereas the rest of us know that it's a responsibility and it should be shared.
Power is a burden not a toy. But folks should be sharing it regardless.
Only spoiled children don't want to share their toys.
It's true, they chase after power but don't really want to govern. They regard it as a status symbol rather than a job.
Once authoritarians get into power they get bored with running things. They show no interest in the drudgery of keeping a country going (sewer systems, food supplies, medical provision, social safety nets, economic policy etc), instead they want big exciting projects and wars even if they make everything worse for their country.
@eff I'd be interested to know what you, @pluralistic, think about it?
@eff well... fuck
@eff They aren't "general purpose tools" this *absolutely* isn't anything remotely like the creation that copyright is designed to foster, and it definitely isn't a transformative work. I get that she's a lawyer by trade and training, and therefore lacks the background to understand what "AI" is, so I have to wonder who she's been working with to have developed such an enormously skewed idea of what this technology actually is and how it's created.
@eff Sorry EFF but that is a terrible move. Maybe one day you will reflect and discover why. But until then hell no.
@eff Looks like the EFF just became one of those organisations I actively avoid donating to.
@eff never getting another fucking CENT from me you morally bankrupt fucks. What an unbelievably humiliating betrayal. You cannot trust anyone or anything in this world, apparently
@eff so how the f does that square with privacy and free speech????
Stealing is a violation of privacy, stealing our words is a violation of free speech. No one is being compensated. Rare books are being destroyed. In some cases original authors are being denied the rights to their own work because an AI stole it from them.
You can not say this is not stealing.
Absolutely you have violated your own purpose in existing.
Even granting the bizarre claim that training a large language model on entire works isn't a copyright violation, how can you pretend not to see the bigger picture?
I ask this as a long-time EFF contributor who's suddenly reconsidering.
