4 ms·

Can you source the claims of databases being obtained illegally? An interesting conversation of "consent" comes to mind - I think the issue is if somebody's fac

Can you source the claims of databases being obtained illegally? An interesting conversation of "consent" comes to mind - I think the issue is if somebody's face appears in a news article is it allowed to then download that same image and store it for unrelated purposes? Wouldn't that make google image search illegal? How about FB's now defunt face matching system they just removed? As far as I have seen some regulators have demanded the data be deleted as it might be considered to breach GDPR, but there are absolutely countries (like the USA) where this is considered absolutely acceptable behavior. So far, no public court cases with decisions can be found anywhere from what I can see.

sneak 5y ago
Clearview is selling use of the imagery without a license. If you or I scraped everything off of Instagram and started offering derived data as a SaaS, we'd go to jail. These people don't because they're using it to help the cops.
- pixl97 5y ago
  They are selling the images themselves... if you scraped all the images off Instagram to make a list of the most popular memes and songs of the week the lawsuit would be much more difficult against you.
- creato 5y ago
  I don't think that is true. Scraping Facebook and the like has already been litigated several times. I can't find the outcome of those cases, but jail is definitely not a possibility.
  - donmcronald 5y ago
    If I take a picture of my family and tag everyone on Facebook, I own the copyright to that picture and the metadata. If Clearview AI scrapes that image and uses that to build their database, they're violating copyright. Why don't they get prosecuted for industrial scale copyright infringement? IMHO it's because they're not violating the copyright of an ultra wealthy company or individual. It's only normal people getting cheating, so nothing gets done.
    - djrogers 5y ago
      Copyright violation is a civil matter, not a criminal one. You don’t have D.A.s prosecute people for civil crimes, you sue them.
      - nulbyte 5y ago
        Copyright violation at scale across state lines is indeed a criminal matter, as the MPAA likes to remind you before every showing of a film.
    - ipaddr 5y ago
      You gave facebook permission to give the photo away. Facebook makes it available to the public. Google, Yandex, Bing will read/save the image and provide a link to the original resource during a search if any text in a link matches. Uploading a photo will these searches will try to match against yours. You as the copyright holder had the freedom to do whatever you wanted. By making it public you granted people access to view your content. People can legally view that image and make judgements including that you are similiar to another photo that was taken. It's not about authors wealth your friends can save those images. If they sold or republished you could have a case but not if they directly link to your facebook pictures.
      - hermitdev 5y ago
        Yes, but Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Clearview or anyone else cannot take an image of me and use it for biometric purposes without my express consent as an Illinois resident. It doesn't matter if I took the photo or uploaded it. It's still a photo of me, and I have not consented.
      - sneak 5y ago
        > By making it public you granted people access to view your content. People can legally view that image and make judgements including that you are similiar to another photo that was taken. This is not how copyright works. Clearview has no license to the copyrighted material from which they are profiting. Facebook et al do - the license grant is in the signup TOS.

sneak 5y ago

Clearview is selling use of the imagery without a license. If you or I scraped everything off of Instagram and started offering derived data as a SaaS, we'd go to jail. These people don't because they're using it to help the cops.

pixl97 5y ago
They are selling the images themselves... if you scraped all the images off Instagram to make a list of the most popular memes and songs of the week the lawsuit would be much more difficult against you.
creato 5y ago
I don't think that is true. Scraping Facebook and the like has already been litigated several times. I can't find the outcome of those cases, but jail is definitely not a possibility.
- donmcronald 5y ago
  If I take a picture of my family and tag everyone on Facebook, I own the copyright to that picture and the metadata. If Clearview AI scrapes that image and uses that to build their database, they're violating copyright. Why don't they get prosecuted for industrial scale copyright infringement? IMHO it's because they're not violating the copyright of an ultra wealthy company or individual. It's only normal people getting cheating, so nothing gets done.
  - djrogers 5y ago
    Copyright violation is a civil matter, not a criminal one. You don’t have D.A.s prosecute people for civil crimes, you sue them.
    - nulbyte 5y ago
      Copyright violation at scale across state lines is indeed a criminal matter, as the MPAA likes to remind you before every showing of a film.
  - ipaddr 5y ago
    You gave facebook permission to give the photo away. Facebook makes it available to the public. Google, Yandex, Bing will read/save the image and provide a link to the original resource during a search if any text in a link matches. Uploading a photo will these searches will try to match against yours. You as the copyright holder had the freedom to do whatever you wanted. By making it public you granted people access to view your content. People can legally view that image and make judgements including that you are similiar to another photo that was taken. It's not about authors wealth your friends can save those images. If they sold or republished you could have a case but not if they directly link to your facebook pictures.
    - hermitdev 5y ago
      Yes, but Facebook, Google, Microsoft, Clearview or anyone else cannot take an image of me and use it for biometric purposes without my express consent as an Illinois resident. It doesn't matter if I took the photo or uploaded it. It's still a photo of me, and I have not consented.
    - sneak 5y ago
      > By making it public you granted people access to view your content. People can legally view that image and make judgements including that you are similiar to another photo that was taken. This is not how copyright works. Clearview has no license to the copyrighted material from which they are profiting. Facebook et al do - the license grant is in the signup TOS.