Comment on Pay-per-output? AI firms blindsided by beefed up robots.txt instructions.
ccunning@lemmy.world 17 hours agoI think the idea is that all parties would find it beneficial:
Leeds told Ars that the RSL standard doesn’t just benefit publishers, though. It also solves a problem for AI companies, which have complained in litigation over AI scraping that there is no effective way to license content across the web.
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 17 hours ago
The thing is a robots.txt file doesn’t work as licensing. There’s no legal requirement to fetch the file, and no mechanism to consent or track consent.
This is putting up a sign that says everyone must pay, and then giving it to anyone who asks for free.
ccunning@lemmy.world 17 hours ago
The thing is if all parties find the terms agreeable it doesn’t matter if it’s legally binding.
It’s more like putting a price on the shelf at the grocery store. Not every one will agree the price is agreeable and you might still get shoplifters but it doesn’t mean it’s a waste of time to list the price.
ricecake@sh.itjust.works 16 hours ago
It really does matter if it’s legally binding if you’re talking about content licensing. That’s the whole thing with a licensing agreement: it’s a legal agreement.
The store analogy isn’t quite right. Leaving a store with something you haven’t purchased with the consent of the store is explicitly illegal.
With a website, it’s more like if the “shoplifter” walked in, didn’t request a price sheet, picked up what they wanted and went to the cashier who explicitly gave it to them without payment.
The crux of the issue is that the website is still providing the information even if the requester never agreed or was even presented with the terms.
If your site wants to make access to something conditional then it needs to actually enforce that restriction.
It’s why the current AI training situation is unlikely to be resolved without laws to address it explicitly.
Telorand@reddthat.com 15 hours ago
I think the analogy is apt. If you post a price on goods, and somebody walks into a store, picks up the item, and walks out without paying, they can’t simply say, “Well, I didn’t care to read the price, and nobody presented me with a contract, so I just took it,” as a valid defense. There’s sometimes an explicit agreement upon terms, sure, but there are times where that agreement is implicit: they put a price on a thing, I pay it, else it’s stealing. I don’t need to sign a contract every time I get groceries.
I do, however, agree that this will only have teeth once it’s argued and upheld in court the first (few) time(s). If nothing else, it’s good to see people trying to solve the problem, rather than just throwing up their hands and letting billionaires run amok with virtual impunity. Maybe this won’t work to reign in AI tech bros, but maybe it will inspire the things that do.