Google is accused of “stealing everything ever shared on the internet,” to fuel its AI, including copyrighted works and personal data. The case comes after a privacy policy update spotted by Gizmodo which says the company scrapes the web’s public information.

A 6-year-old, a best-selling author, and others accuse Google of stealing “everything ever shared on the internet" after Gizmodo noted a privacy policy change.

  • Bernie Ecclestoned@sh.itjust.worksEnglish
    3·
    1 year ago

    When I post something online, say a trip report on my personal travel blog, does that mean I consent to ie Google using my intellectual property for training their LLM? My answer is a resounding no.

    You posted it online. It’s the same as posting a picture outside your house, you can’t then demand that only some people look at it, or prevent anyone from taking a picture of your picture. If you want your travel blog to be personal, don’t post it in public

    • slaeg@lemmy.worldEnglish
      11·
      1 year ago

      Yup, but posting online =/= giving away all or any rights to said intellectual property. Sure I can go to the Louvre and take a photo of the Mona Lisa. I can even use that photo to practice painting, maybe I’ll become the next Da Vinci.

      The owners have even posted photos of the most famous painting in the world online. Does that mean they allow me to advertise my beautiful reproduction as the Mona Lisa? Of course it doesn’t. Because that is still their intellectual property.

      Same thing with other ip rights.

      Online piracy is also just copying, right? The right holders never lose their product?

      Well, remember when Metallica took on Napster? Or how many people have been sued by Hollywood for copying their work, and for how much?

      Or try posting a video to Youtube with Disney music overlaid. It gets flagged and taken down so fast, because that interfers with the mouse’s ip rights.

      Hell, Disney’s IP law departement are so on the ball that some US cops have used it as a strategy: they have played Disney music from their cellphones when they have been recorded violating citizens’ rights, because they know that shit gets taken down so fast.

      If I publicize my little travel blog, I have an expectation that people will read it. I might even want them to. Maybe inspire them to go to the same place.

      But that is something completely different than letting one of the largests corporations in the world use it to build a commercial product with an enourmous potential. If someone uses my IP for monetary gains, the rules are (roughly) that they have to compensate me for that.

      This is already too long, but as I’ve been writing I have become more curious with your (or anyone else’s) perspective on this. May I ask, what is your view on this? How far do you mean that companies can use online data?

      Can a company which sells pills against premature ejaculation use my photo in advertisements, just because it is available online? Or can they take pictures of you and create a deepfake which makes it looks like you are praising Hitler? Or can a travel writer take my photos and writing from my blog and publicise it and make a quazillion dollars while I just have to deal with it because I posted it online?

      Genuinely curious.