3 ms·

No it is not, the latent vector and/or weights of the model do not infringe copyright, however people don't typically consume the y=3x-5, they consume the outpu

No it is not, the latent vector and/or weights of the model do not infringe copyright, however people don't typically consume the y=3x-5, they consume the output points (images). If you output (2, 1) you have infringed the holder's copyright (even though the means of production could include any arbitrary set of functions). Let me put it another way. Suppose you authored and copyrighted two images. I then train a model that can interpolate between those images using a "latent space" from 0-1.0. For most of that space, the image might look totally different, or even like noise. But if I set the value to 1.0, generate your exact image (pixel-for-pixel) and then sell it, would you say "well since model could have generated different images, the fact that it generated my image isn't infringement...". This is about like saying that taking a digital photograph and then selling the photograph isn't infringement because the pixels are slightly different, and the digital camera is merely a model that approximates the true colors of the atoms by sampling photons which it maps into a regular grid to approximate colors, which are further down-sampled by means of compression algorithms. Truly, the digital photo and real-life image can't be considered the same, can they? The digital approach only reproduces it using "heuristics" and "algorithms", and could theoretically reproduce any image given a slightly different set of input bytes to the decompression, rendering, and printing algorithms.

scotty79 4y ago
What if I have the model on my computer and I generate (2,1)? Do I still infringe? After all that's exactly what my computer does in case of images that it downloaded from the internet which I open up later from local drive to view them again.
- program_whiz 4y ago
  If you have a legal right to view it on your computer, then no. However, downloading a movie illegally and watching it (whether it was compressed or reproduced by AI) is not legal. By whatever means of delivery, if you view the movie you are in legal violation unless you bought it. Similarly, you can view a piece of art (if its available), but selling it would be illegal, regardless of if the way you sell it is by encoding the bits a certain way or providing a "generator function" that creates the art for you that you then sell. Take another example: if you try to sell or publicly play a Taylor Swift song without permission, that is illegal (even though it was technically generated by your computer and you used an arbitrary process to create the reproduction), its owned by Taylor Swift. Its long been the case that the song is reproduced by dozens of different mediums, storage procedures, algorithms, sound generators, and mechanisms, but ultimately it is still the creative property of Swift.

scotty79 4y ago

What if I have the model on my computer and I generate (2,1)? Do I still infringe? After all that's exactly what my computer does in case of images that it downloaded from the internet which I open up later from local drive to view them again.

program_whiz 4y ago
If you have a legal right to view it on your computer, then no. However, downloading a movie illegally and watching it (whether it was compressed or reproduced by AI) is not legal. By whatever means of delivery, if you view the movie you are in legal violation unless you bought it. Similarly, you can view a piece of art (if its available), but selling it would be illegal, regardless of if the way you sell it is by encoding the bits a certain way or providing a "generator function" that creates the art for you that you then sell. Take another example: if you try to sell or publicly play a Taylor Swift song without permission, that is illegal (even though it was technically generated by your computer and you used an arbitrary process to create the reproduction), its owned by Taylor Swift. Its long been the case that the song is reproduced by dozens of different mediums, storage procedures, algorithms, sound generators, and mechanisms, but ultimately it is still the creative property of Swift.