[PurpleRamen]

> That argument doesn’t fly, because they didn’t have the copyright to begin with.

Is this really the case? They only have no copyright for distributing it. But let's assume they bought a copy for personal usage (which they did in some cases), then this is similar to hacking companies Amazon-account and complaining about the e-books they legally use for internal purpose. I mean, it's not forbidden to base your work on copyrighted material, as long as it's different enough.

[tsimionescu]

A company is not a person in this way. If a company wants all of their employees to read a book, they are not allowed to buy one copy and then make 5000 copies "for archival purposes - fair use" then share those copies to their employees. Similarly, if they want to base a work on a copyrighted work, they can't just buy a copy for personal use (nevermind the fact that most of the data the LLMs are trained on is not even available in this format, it is only available under a license) and then use it in a commercial product in this way - not if the product demonstrably contains copies of that work.

[latexr]

> They only have no copyright for distributing it.

No, they don’t have the copyright to download it either. It’s in the name: the right to copy (other things are also included, such as adaptations and performances).

> let's assume they bought a copy for personal usage

If it’s for personal usage, then training a commercial LLM does not apply. When you buy a DVD of a movie you have the personal right to watch it at home, you don’t have the right to play it on the street.