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Ask HN: If my LLM generates a script similar to a TV show, can I use it?
6 points by matt3210 on Sept 13, 2023 | hide | past | favorite | 7 comments



Use it for what? Entertaining a court of competent jurisdiction with your complete ignorance of copyright law? For sure. As a script for a TV show? Well, of course you can, but expect to pay a pretty penny for violating the copyright of the original.

Copyright does not particularly care whether you produce infringing materials with a fountain pen or a plausible sentence generator software. In this case , it's not impossible your script will be found a derivative work and then 17 U.S.C. 106(2) applies.

Running Victorious Titus through the very human brain of Tyler Bates did not make the 300 soundtrack less infringing.


Copyright does not cover plot, it is perfectly legal to make a TV show about an aging school teacher that decides to become a drug kingpin to finance his cancer treatment.


"Similar to" in what way? If you mean that it's an episode of a new show with new characters that uses similar plot points to another show then you're all good. But if it's straight up using the same characters, fictional setting etc then you might be in trouble.


If the LLM generation cannot be copyrighted, then it cannot violate a copyright...right?


> If the LLM generation cannot be copyrighted, then it cannot violate a copyright…right?

No, that doesn’t follow.

E.g., a photocopier in its normal mode of operation (because it produces mechanical copies of works already fixed in tangible form, which therefore are already copyrighted if copyrightable) cannot produce work that is copyrightable, but can produce things which violate copyrights.


You could create another work from it and distribute it on the basis of Fair Use, but I don't think you could comfortably copyright any of the derivative work.

IANAL, this is not legal advice.


I am not sure that either of those two things are correct, or that they are connected with each other




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