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This is your occasional reminder that generative "AI" in particular could have been developed on public domain materials and/or licensed and compensated works but the major players intentionally, methodically and systemically chose to steal labor from working creative folks instead

Tom

@moll.dev

Gutenberg's press lead to the creation of copyright.Not for the sake of the authors, but for those of the publisher who were facing intense competition. Copyright law is an enclosure of the public domains, like the private enclosure of public lands.

5/10/26, 8:11 pm0 reposts1 like

Tom

@moll.dev

A true capitalist will tell you that publishers and authors need copyright, because otherwise there's no incentive to write new works. Blatantly untrue, as copyright has only existed for a relatively short amount of time, compared to human writing systems.

Tom

@moll.dev

Similarly, we should not let AI companies further enclose the public domain in the same way publishers did upon the invention of the press.