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Well, presumably the claim would be that a factor in their not having taxable income was the fact that they didn't have to amortize their development cost.

Yeah; start-ups will start paying tax much sooner since salaries are the main expense in software development, and only a fraction can be deducted per year. The tax change must make things marginally more difficult for young companies that have some revenue, aren't cash-flow positive, and have a short horizon.

It's not marginal. It significantly impacts sub-$10MM companies.

> Meanwhile, software developers spot code fragments seemingly lifted from public repositories on Github and lose their shit. What about the licensing? If you’re a lawyer, I defer. But if you’re a software developer playing this card? Cut me a little slack as I ask you to shove this concern up your ass. No profession has demonstrated more contempt for intellectual property.

Seriously? Is this argument in all earnestly "No profession has been more contemptuous therefore we should keep on keeping on"? Should we as an industry not bother to try and improve our ethics? Why don't we all just make munitions for a living and wash our hands of guilt because "the industry was always like this".

Seems a bit ironic against the backdrop of <https://news.ycombinator.com/user?id=tptacek>:

> All comments Copyright © 2010, 2011, 2012, 2013, 2015, 2018, 2023, 2031 Thomas H. Ptacek, All Rights Reserved.

(although perhaps this is tongue-in-cheek given the last year)


It's a fib sequence



There already was a verdict (for the Times) but it was thrown out on appeal. This is a re-do.

ETA: I looked up the docket [0] and in fact, this was the second appeal (See ECF 64). There was also an appeal on a prior MTD, hence the extreme delay.

[0]: https://www.courtlistener.com/docket/6081165/palin-v-the-new...


Probably https://free.law/

ETA: which is of course mentioned on the thread root. But RECAP users would be paying, in that case.


I would think it makes some amount of sense if you think they're vegetarian for some moral reason and you think you could court them to become customers.


But why target a market that doesn't want you? Do you really think a burger place can some how override a person's morals to not eat meet? I realize were stretching the analogy here, but what is the point? Maybe if you already saturated the existing market and trying to grow. But then why saddle that market with the wants/needs of the polar opposite?


Why do you think that? This obviously does not preclude copyright interests from existing in works which were generated using "AI" as a blanket rule; rather, this is about the fact that the applicant persistent in insisting that the author of the work was an "autonomous[] computer algorithm".

Do you think autonomous computer algorithms (to the extent we could suppose they exist, for the sake of argument) should have a statutory right to copyright?


No, I just think that the space can be cleared up with legislation.

It's a weird world where works created with a prompt are not creative enough for protection but pictures taken by randomly pointing smartphone cameras (which use significant amounts of AI internally, btw) are copyrightable.


> What I can guarantee, is that the prompt itself would be copyright-able.

That's non-obvious to me. Even if the prompt is extremely long and precise, if it is somehow purely functional, it seems possible for it to not be (although in practice, I agree that most prompts could be).


It is basically pseudo-code, and should have the same copyright as other code if it is sufficiently complex to pass the typical test for copyright. One might think code should not have copyright, but that is a different conversation.


Yes, I agree. I don't think I am saying anything inconsistent with that.


Code is purely functional and is copyrightable so why would a prompt not be?

A prompt has essentially the same purpose as code, especially when it's long and precise.


Code is not purely functional. If it is, it is not copyrightable (at least in the US; probably true elsewhere but I am less sure) [0]. I would not expect most prompts to be purely functional.

[0]: https://www.copyright.gov/circs/circ61.pdf


In what way do you think corporate personhood is relevant here?


Obviously corporations are a legal fiction and not biological human entities with inherent intelligence and agency.

They are tools to enable the wills of specific human beings, so the comparison seems fair?


What comparison do you think the parent comment is making? They just vaguely gesture at corporate personhood and say "what about that?"

My best reading of it is "can 'they' say that corporations can author works?" and excepting works for hire, no, "they" can't.


I don't think it takes that much imagination here. Not sure what good the first step is actually doing you. Might as well just AI-generate your racketeering demand letters without doing that part.


If I just send fake letters, it's illegal (I assume). If I have a legitimate website selling logos, and point to the product page for the logo I accused you of copying, and I can claim copyright ownership over AI generated art, then I have the law on my side even if I get taken to court (I assume).

I'm not a lawyer though, so I'm probably wrong. At the very least, the legitimate website makes the threatening letter look more believable.


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