back
3 comments
The principal criminal statute protecting copyrighted works is 17 U.S.C. § 506(a), which provides that "[a]ny person who infringes a copyright willfully and for purposes of commercial advantage or private financial gain" shall be punished as provided in 18 U.S.C. § 2319. Section 2319 provides, in pertinent part, that a 5-year felony shall apply if the offense "consists of the reproduction or distribution, during any 180-day period, of at least 10 copies or phonorecords, of 1 or more copyrighted works, with a retail value of more than $2,500." 18 U.S.C. § 2319(b)(1).

https://www.justice.gov/archives/jm/criminal-resource-manual...

If you don't procure the appropriate license for that content then yes, it is (exceptions for things like parody notwithstanding).

For example, clearance of music samples.

So aspiring authors should avoid all reading, because they need licenses for all works that inspired them?
That is an absurd conclusion to draw.

Authors do not need licenses for works that inspired them.

Then why should AI?
Because AI isn't human? It's a machine/algorithm?
Then why are these exceptions unique to human?
Take it up with the US Copyright Office. Per GPT4:

In the "monkey selfie" case, a photographer named David Slater set up a camera in the Indonesian jungle, and a macaque monkey took a photograph of itself with it. When the photo was uploaded and shared, various parties began to argue over who held the copyright. Slater claimed it was his because it was his camera and he set up the situation. Others believed that if the monkey pressed the shutter, then the monkey, or no one, held the copyright.

The U.S. Copyright Office clarified its stance on the matter in the Compendium of U.S. Copyright Office Practices, Third Edition. It stated:

"The U.S. Copyright Office will not register works produced by nature, animals, or plants. Likewise, the Office cannot register a work purportedly created by divine or supernatural beings, although the Office may register a work where the application or the deposit copy state that the work was inspired by a divine spirit."

But did you not purchase that content first?
but buying a book is not buying the copyright of it.
Borrowed it from the library.