Again, I’m genuinely curious: can’t two parties sign a contract that says “you pay for all tokens required to produce the answer, but you only get the final ans

Again, I’m genuinely curious: can’t two parties sign a contract that says “you pay for all tokens required to produce the answer, but you only get the final answer tokens”? My understanding of US law is that there’s nothing in logic or precedent that makes such a contract unenforceable. As for whether it’s “stealing”: they might be able to press charges under federal Trade Secret Theft laws, I’m not sure. But I’m not seeing how you can be so very very certain that it’s at best a civil violation of contract. What’s the reason for your confidence that a judge would never find this to be trade secret theft or economic espionage?