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  • I keep saying "no" to this sort of thing, for a variety of reasons.

    1. "You can use this code for anything you want as long as you don't work in a field that I don't like" is pretty much the opposite of the spirit of the GPL.
    2. The enormous companies slurping up all content available on the Internet do not care about copyright. The GPL already forbids adapting and redistributing code without licensing under the GPL, and they're not doing that. So another clause that says "hey, if you're training an AI, leave me out" is wasted text that nobody is going to read.
    3. Making "AI" an issue instead of "big corporate abuse" means that academics and hobbyists can't legally train a language model on your code, even if they would otherwise comply with the license.
    4. The FSF has never cared about anything unless Stallman personally cared about it on his personal computer, and they've recently proven that he matters to them more than the community, so we probably shouldn't ever expect a new GPL.
    5. The GPL has so many problems (because it's been based on one person's personal focuses) that they don't care about or isolate in random silos (like the AGPL, as if the web is still a fringe thing) that AI barely seems relevant.

    I mean, I get it. The language-model people are exhausting, and their disinterest in copyright law is unpleasant. But asking an organization that doesn't care to add restrictions to a license that the companies don't read isn't going to solve the problem.

  • Too soon. The GPL is a license aligning prevalent copyright laws to some ideological goals. There are no prevalent copyright laws regarding AI yet, so there is nothing to base a copyright license on.

    First step: introduce AI into copyright law (and pray The Mouse doesn't introduce it first).

  • I think if we want a GPLv4, it should not be made by the FSF.

    • Why is that, out of curiosity?

      • The FSF is a non-working organization which refuses to let go of its horrible founder. I hoped it would move on, it didn't and refused to despite massive amounts of community backlash. I no longer believe they should have any role in representing the Free Software movement.

    • But ironically they are the "owner" of the license, anyone can't modify it

    • The GPL is a license made by the FSF, not sure who else could make a new version other than them. Other entities make their own licenses, which might or not be compatible with the GPL.

      • Anyone can make a license and make it compatible with the GPL but yes, I forgot that the FSF doesn't allow modifications of the GPL which is pretty fucking weird thinking more about it.

29 comments