The article discusses a ruling by Judge William Alsup concerning Anthropic's illegal acquisition of copyrighted material used for research purposes. Alsup criticized the notion that downloading pirated content could be justified for subsequent fair use, stating that such actions constitute inherent infringement. He noted that Anthropic's retention of these materials was not transformative. Despite Anthropic's later purchase of some of the pirated works, Alsup pointed out this would not absolve them of legal liability, though it could potentially mitigate damages.
This order doubts that any accused infringer could ever meet its burden of explaining why downloading source copies from pirate sites was itself reasonably necessary.
Anthropic's argument to hold onto potentially pirated material for AI training was an attempt to 'fast glide over thin ice.'
Anthropic is wrong to suppose that so long as you create an exciting end product, every 'back-end step, invisible to the public,' is excused.
That Anthropic later bought a copy of a book it earlier stole off the Internet will not absolve it of liability for the theft, but it may affect the extent of statutory damages.
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