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canopic jug [soylentnews.org] writes:

Bruce Schneir, the cryptographer and privacy specialist, and J B Branch, an accountability advocate at Public Citizen, have written a post about AI and the Corporate Capture of Knowledge [schneier.com]. They raise hard questions about what happened to Aaron Swartz in the context of the what is going on with artificial intelligence, copyright, and ultimately the control of knowledge:

As AI becomes a larger part of America’s economy, one can see the writing on the wall. Judges will twist themselves into knots to justify an innovative technology premised on literally stealing the works of artists, poets, musicians, all of academia and the internet, and vast expanses of literature. But if Swartz’s actions were criminal, it is worth asking: What standard are we now applying to AI companies?

The question is not simply whether copyright law applies to AI. It is why the law appears to operate so differently depending on who is doing the extracting and for what purpose.

The stakes extend beyond copyright law or past injustices. They concern who controls the infrastructure of knowledge going forward and what that control means for democratic participation, accountability and public trust.

The questions they raise are important questions because the foundation of democracy is being able to make informed decisions through participation in civilized, well-rounded discussions. The prerequisite for that is knowledge.

Previously:
(2025) OpenAI Desperate to Avoid Explaining Why It Deleted Pirated Book Datasets [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Meta Pirated and Seeded Porn for Years to Train AI, Lawsuit Says [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Creating AI Based Entirely on Ethically-Sourced Data [soylentnews.org]
(2025) Copyright Office Thinks AI Companies Sometimes Stole Content [soylentnews.org]
(2024) OpenAI Whistleblower Found Dead in San Francisco Apartment [soylentnews.org]
(2024) OpenAI Blamed NYT for Tech Problem Erasing Evidence of Copyright Abuse [soylentnews.org]
(2024) AI Companies Are Finally Being Forced To Cough Up For Training Data [soylentnews.org]
and more ...

Original Submission