Posts by Catkin

Getty's image-scraping sueball against Stability AI will go to trial in the UK

Re: Having trouble getting my head around what exactly is at issue here

>I don't think they need to claim that, simply that the images were used without paying or permission to use those images, and that the usage was for commercial gain.

If a judgement in their favour were secured on that basis (I don't think this is the case) it would be, in my view, disastrous. For example, that would be the end of any appraisal of copyrighted materials* and any artist would have to be very careful to never mention viewing a copyrighted piece of work.

*or, worse, the rights holder only granting permission to individuals guaranteed to generate a positive review and/or making the production of a positive review a condition of viewing for the purposes of review

Then again, this is the same Getty that sued a photographer for using her own images, which she had released for free use (Carol Highsmith).

Bitcoin's thirst for water is just as troubling as its energy appetite

I think you might misunderstand. I wasn't suggesting that the comparison (as in, presenting a rundown of the difference between applications) between other types of data centre is needed but, rather, that the data is potentially inaccurate because it is derived from general information on data centre water consumption, with the assumption that there is no difference. This seems like quite a sizeable assumption to make and, while the data is probably somewhere in the right ballpark, it could still be off by quite a bit.

It's a combination of the water consumption for the generation of the power consumed and the water consumed per kWh for cooling the data centre. They don't actually know the specifics for the latter for mining facilities but treated them like any other data centre, adjusting for geographic variations in water consumptions (e.g. making use of evaporative cooling where the climate permits) based on the location distribution.

As far as the paper goes, there doesn't appear to be anything specific to cryptocurrency mining that would result in higher water consumption than any other data centre operation of similar power consumption. That said, whether this is because there really is no difference, because the authors lacked the capacity to investigate fully or because they didn't consider this question is unclear.

Virgin Atlantic flies 'world's first fossil-fuel free' transatlantic commercial flight

Re: Price support mechanisms

"The same perverse incentives could equally arise from "price support" and any mechanism found to deal with one would also apply equally to the other."

I agree but, looking more broadly, if they're extra emissions from low net carbon (lest someone jumps down my throat for calling them carbon neutral) fuels, even due to tankering, then that has less impact. Further, if that perverse incentive results in extra SAF being produced, that could help lower the price through efficiencies of scale.

Re: Price support mechanisms

There are potential adverse incentives to this if taxation isn't imposed universally. Planes may be flown with brimmed tanks if entering a country with a higher tax rate and may perform detours to fill up in cheaper locations. Both of these would drastically increase emissions.

Not to dismiss the idea out of hand, just to help you understand the complications.

Tiny11 shrinks Windows 11 23H2 down to pocket size

Re: Icon =======>

It's not a terrible concept but, like so many things in life, compromises of convinience do happen.

Re: runs on old kit

I was very pleased with Cinnamon but do dual boot for certain software. I honestly wish Lenovo had just kept making the X230 with updated internals; mine has endured significantly more abuse than a modern X series could stand up to.

Re: Icon =======>

Perhaps someone wants to run Windows-only software on a system that's Internet facing and wants to receive security updates* without the bloat.

*and is happier with a system that may be pre-compromised by a third party over one without updates. That said, there is safety in numbers; the more people using it, the more looking for surreptitious nasties.

I would also like to read your source on "fleeing".

Foxconn founder Terry Gou quits Taiwan presidential race

CBDCs

It's notable that South Korea is going down the route of internally restricted tokens right out of the gate. Depending on how much you trust a government implementing their use, CBDCs with per-token restrictions and/or expiry dates (though I couldn't find whether this CBDC features the latter at this stage) are either a fine tool to make welfare payments all the more efficient at serving the people or a highly effective tool for precisely controlling dissent; though these aren't necessarily mutually exclusive.

Greenpeace calls out tech giants for carbon footprint fumble

Re: Greenpeace is irrelevant and so is carbon dioxide

That's rather Let Them Eat Cakey. It's better to be honest about the impact of necessary regulations because poorer people will notice the impact on their lives (like not being able to afford EVs with the same range as their previous IC vehicles) and statements like yours leave them ripe for picking by populists.

User read the manual, followed instructions, still couldn't make 'Excel' work

There's a wonderful font out there called Cocksure (NSFW) if you ever want to see whether someone is paying attention to fonts.

How to give Windows Hello the finger and login as someone on their stolen laptop

Re: fingerprint works <25% of time

It works nicely on my older Thinkpads. I use it in office scenarios where it's unlikely that my laptop would be stolen but very likely that a tasteless email would be sent from an unlocked machine. By having fingerprint sign in, I'm much more tolerant of a shorter lock time than if I had to enter a password.

Binance and CEO admit financial crimes, billions coughed up to US govt

Re: Where's the $10 billion coming from?

The median civil forfeiture amounts to $1.2k so it's rarely the drug dealing kingpin or crooked banker having their bales of cash and flashy cars seized that the authorities like to present.

Re: Where's the $10 billion coming from?

Civil forfeiture in the US is a pretty grotesque thing, in my opinion. It allows law enforcement to nab assets on the suspicion that they're part of criminal activities with return to the original owner only taking place if legitimate origins can be proven.

In practice, this means that anyone with possessions that are a bit too nice or who have a bit too much cash for their perceived station in life are liable to lose it to police and rarely get it back.

Palantir bags £330M NHS data bonanza despite privacy fears

Re: Vital to recover from its pandemic backlog

I think 'routine elective' can be a tad misleading. For example, someone who suffers from debilitating but non-progressive back pain might have a spinal fusion operation described as routine and elective. However, they'd still likely react rather poorly if you suggested they could do with waiting a little longer.

Lenovo sues Asus for patent infringement, seeks US ZenBook ban

Looking at photos of the Toshiba machine in various states of unfurling and the patent (US9611680B2), they didn't employ a geared double hinge. It's actually quite a clever arrangement and a rather specific one (perpendicular helical gears) in the Lenovo patent so I think there might be a little more to it than 'laptop with a hinge' if the Asus machine features this arrangement.

Nvidia intros the 'SuperNIC' – it's like a SmartNIC, DPU or IPU, but more super

Re: AI????

Perhaps read the article, where Nvidia themselves are quoted as touting that use.

Microsoft dials back Bing after users manage to recreate Disney logo in fake AI-generated images

I had a hunt round and I would say this article gives a reasonably good surface level introduction to the concept, with some legal precedents. It also explains precisely why the law is anything but 'established':

https://www.photo-mark.com/notes/how-did-transformative-use-become-fair/

Hopefully, this is a good starting point on your journey to better understand this area of the law.

I'd say that if you can describe copyright law and fair use as 'very clear', then you don't understand either. Might I recommend reading up on the principle of transformative works and some of the many legal precedents in that area?

Sorry for being unclear, the whole publicly released part was WRT potential allegations of piracy, as an additional but distinct claim of the type of infringement occurring.

I believe the core question is whether a digital record (image, video, audio, text) that is legally obtained for the purposes of viewing but enjoying general copyright protections can also be used to generate information in a database through pattern extraction (simplified but, I believe, sufficient to generally describe 'AI' image, text and sound generators) without the permission or compensation of the original copyright holder.

There's a lot of opinions on the matter but, as far as I'm aware, no test cases that pertain exclusively to this core question have reached a conclusion and no specific laws have been passed. Sadly, given the amount of money at stake on both sides, I can't foresee a likely outcome that primarily benefits the average consumer or small time content creator. Both those in the business of screwing over consumers in the name of copyright and those in the business of hoovering up content for resale have managed to exploit the technical ignorance of politicians time and time again.

I don't discount the possibility of a sharp legal mind crafting a reasonable law but I would suggest that the majority of confidently given, simple rationales for any position are based upon not understanding the question and/or not caring about the full consequences.

"And that's copyright infringement unless the imagery was licenced to be part of their training database."

I believe this question is still bouncing around the courts and lobbyists, based on the process being one of pattern extraction; not to say it's definitely infringement-free, rather that it's not a question that's been answered definitively. There might be a secondary question of the source if Disney suspected the content were also pirated but it would be pretty hard to make this claim with movie posters, which are generally released for free distribution.

Britain proposes 'super-complaints' to help keep the internet safe

Re: Super?

It seems like a borderline-reasonable idea if viewed without any consideration for reality. So, I suppose, it aligns perfectly with the wider Online """Safety""" Bill.

AI copyright row deepens: Stability VP quits in protest over 'fair use' excuse

Re: Is it different from what people do?

"Which is sort of what AI is doing. Has AI got less rights than humans?"

Could I suggest that the question is "Have humans got less rights when they're assisted by computers than if they do the same task manually?".

Re: training generative AI models on copyrighted works is 'fair use'

I don't think parody has much to fear because, at least in the US, it's extremely well protected (see: Dumb Starbucks). If you're referring to the style, I believe that several models already exist that emulate various eras of Disney drawings.

Also, be careful what you wish for. The copyright barons getting their way has a very poor history for the consumer, from domestic time shifting technology (VHS, Betamax) being initially banned to Private Copying Levies that force the consumer to fork over unnecessary money on the presumption that they'll do something naughty with all that lovely storage space. Contrary to some of the more syrupy PR, this is very much two Goliaths with the side pretending to be a David just itching to restrict your rights and grab your money, just as much the other wants to extract information from your publicly posted sketches.

Scientists use Raspberry Pi tech to protect NASA telescope data

Re: As old as first spy sats....

The same technique was also predated by Genetrix:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Genetrix

As a fun bonus fact: thanks to failed balloon capsules landing on the Soviet union, the Soviets were able to complete the first missions to (by probe) photograph the far side of the Moon. They lacked the technical sophistication to develop their own film with the required specs but Genetrix film was perfect for the mission - flexible at low temperatures and radiation resistant. The actual film that flew was taken directly from a US spy balloon, rather than being reverse engineered.

To pay or not to pay for AI's creative 'borrowing' – that is the question

Re: Two questions for the price of one

Precisely, which is why I believe it's two separate legal questions.

Re: Two questions for the price of one

"Some books include words to the effect of "not to be stored in an electronic storage system" as a condition of sale. That would be a clear infringement if such a book was used without specific permission."

That seems to be a separate (additional) legal question. As per CDPA, it's not an enforceable restriction for programs (in terms of being a copyright infringement) and there's no provisions one way or the other as far as use for other copyrightable works. I'm not proposing that this allows a carte blanche on electronic reproduction but, rather, the presence or absence of such a clause is immaterial. If I'm missing a specific part of the CDPA, I'd really appreciate my attention being drawn to that paragraph.

If it were instead a breach of contract with such a stiff penalty, that would seem to open the door for very onerous EULAs.

Re: Two questions for the price of one

It's just my opinion on the matter, I don't think it applies universally (e.g. driving) but, as far as copyright infringement for deconstructing reality, I think it does. As per your example of memorising, a human that made a perfect reproduction of a copyrighted work from memory by hand would be equally as infringing.

Re: Two questions for the price of one

I think the law* is currently vague because the language covering copying to and from storage relates to programmes (unless I've missed the part to which you refer, it's a big document). For programs, it's actually quite legal for a legal user to copy, decompile and inspect the operation of programs and no EULA can prohibit this in such a way that renders the actions a copyright infringement (the agreements may break other contracts).

*based on Copyrights, Designs and Patents Act 1988

Two questions for the price of one

It seems that the primary (broader) question is whether ingesting material into a training set, when that material would be legal for a human eye to read or view, is infringement. The secondary question is whether certain materials going into certain training sets were obtained in a way that wouldn't have been legal if a human were reading or viewing them.

For the former, I would propose that pattern extraction is no more copyright infringement than making a graph of how frequently particular words appear in a given book or how many clouds appear in the landscape paintings of a particular artist. In other words, if a human can do it legally, a machine should be able to do it legally; regardless of whether the machine can do it "better" (a subjective appraisal).

US Air Force wants to see some atomic motors for future spacecraft

Re: BAD FAITH. GRASPING AT STRAWS

Ah, I didn't realise you saw China as a good example of environmental responsibility.

Re: ANOTHER TALKING POINT, ANOTHER MISCONCEPTION

You can thank Greenpeace and other fearmongers for halting development that would have dropped the price of nuclear further, thanks to future designs not based around plutonium manufacture. I'll save my thanks for China and Germany due to the intense heavy metals and nanocomposites spewed into the environment from their solar and wind generator manufacture which, ironically, is subsidised. This is to say nothing of the cost per Wh not taking into account the unreliability of those sources.

Re: MORE BAD FAITH

You're misunderstanding (or perhaps deliberately misrepresenting) the study. They're using data from a cohort that has extremely well monitored external exposure to explore the overall risk from radiation. Earlier, you asserted that "No irreparable DNA damage is incurred." but, by definition, if a cancer develops (i.e. from exposure to radon), that cannot be the case. Whether this radiation comes from the isotopes vomited into the atmosphere through coal or from accidental releases, the outcome is the same. Indeed, at some locations on Earth, background exposures occur that are an order higher than what would be permitted for a radiation worker.

Re: MORE BAD FAITH

Piffle. Did you even look at the paper on radon-induced cancers? You're also confusing maximum permitted exposures with received exposures and highly localised readings; this may be base ignorance but I'm not entirely ready to dismiss it being either deliberately misleading or simple regurgitation of scaremongering. It's reminiscent of those morons at Greenpeace* pointing a thermal camera at a waste cask and showing off a picture of the 'scary' (thermal) radiation.

*who thanks to their anti-nuclear claptrap are every bit as much to blame for climate change as fossil fuel companies

Re: BAD FAITH!

Nonsense. The result is the same whether a gamma ray comes from an all natural, organic, grass fed, farm-to-table isotope or one cooked up in a reactor. Radon, as per your example, can and does cause lung cancer:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7068370/

The reason no one has been evacuated due to radioactive pollution from coal is because it pollutes the planet so comprehensively that there's no safe place to escape from it.

Re: WHAT GOES UP...

Things in orbit are continuously 'coming down'. The question is when drag (and gravitational perturbations if we're talking centuries) plays enough of a role to get them into the atmosphere proper. If it's after a few thousand years then there's little to worry about. If orbital reactors take off in a big way then we can consider returning them safely to avoid orbital clogging as re-entry without baking the contents of a capsule is a solved problem.

Grumpy Astronomers

If anyone is doing gamma-ray astronomy, they might be in for a nasty shock as space reactors are generally unshielded. Before you grab your lead foil hat, inverse square and the atmosphere itself mean that it's not a problem for those on the ground, unless it burns up.

Re: What could go wrong...

A fresh out of the box reactor, assuming it's not using MOX or reprocessed (as opposed to enriched) uranium fuel, isn't a terribly dangerous thing. The primary danger, other than some nasty person hoovering it up for nefarious fission antics, is similar to other heavy metals. It's much more of a problem when the reactor has been running and re-enters the atmosphere because, by that point, it's full of much nastier isotopes.

Re: In space

Radiators. The US has already launched one reactor (SNAP) and the Soviets followed with several more. The Soviet satellites didn't use their reactor for thrust but rather to operate high power demand surveillance systems, like RADAR.

Google dragged to UK watchdog over Chrome's upcoming IP address cloaking

Re: Child protection`

They could also be serving up NSFW adverts which I'm also not particularly fond of. It's strange that if I show something reasonably risqué to a non-consenting person in public, I could go on a register but advertisers are free to do so to me.

Re: show ads to non-tracked users based purely on the query they just entered.

It's more attractive to have a large pool of aggregated data.

Amazon's retail wing tops list of take-down demands from Europe under new DSA law

Apples and Oranges

To be fair to Amazon (!), comparing them on raw numbers to Facebook and Snapchat seems a little unfair. I doubt that the average user on those platforms is doing anything that's as necessarily publicly visible and/or scrutiny-worthy as those who are, by definition, selling something.

EU lawmakers scolded for concealing identities of privacy-busting content-scanning 'experts'

I wasn't saying that communism (in name) is the only form of oppressive government or even that the people envisioning being the oppressors are necessarily communists. I more refer to the standard western 'communist' being exactly the sort of person who, during typical revolutions ends up against the wall as a "counter-revolutionary". Obviously, there's wide latitude here but I think it holds true as a general concept.

I do wonder if the people who blindly support these proposals (to break encryption, not yours) are more like the 'communists' who've never experienced communism and imagine that they'll be getting to do the oppression or if their thoughts are simply so air conditioned that they cannot perceive or imagine oppressive government.

Apple exec defends 8GB $1,599 MacBook Pro, claims it's like 16GB in a PC

Re: *Placed*

The key part isn't the connection method but the location: it's on the same chip package as the CPU. Soldered or socketed is more to cover both main ways RAM is connected to a motherboard.

European Space Agency grits teeth, preps contracts for SpaceX Galileo launch

Re: American Security Threat

Thanks for clarifying. That's a little less risky but I'd still have the usual concerns about bringing critical hardware into physical contact with suspect hardware.

American Security Threat

That seems rather flimsy if Russia has been used in the past for launches.

Shock horror – and there goes the network neighborhood

>Fuses are actually pretty inaccurate devices anyway. The perception is that a 10A fuse will run fine at 9.9A but blow at 10.1A but that isn't really true...

To add to this, they also have (equally inaccurate) curves for low long a particular current will take to blow a fuse. For example, taking 10 seconds to blow at 2% over rated capacity.

In quest to defeat Euro red-tape, Apple said it had three Safari browsers – not one

Re: The title is no longer required.

Chalk it up to pragmatism or genuine shame (or whatever else you like) on the part of those corporations; it's compounded when the disdain is so public. Even pragmatism shows some awareness and acceptance of the limitations of lies.

Re: The title is no longer required.

I would say their view of the legal system is significantly more disdainful than the average corporation. Obviously, it's a large company with many hands at the various wheels throughout its history but there are some people at Apple who go beyond the usual contempt of treating fines as the cost of doing business.

For example, in response to Samsung's successful counter-suit, first publishing a complete non-apology (so ridiculously contemptuous that the judge made them re-write it) before adding sneaky code to their front page so that the apology wouldn't appear without scrolling on any device. The last part wasn't just a bit of overbearing HTML work from before the judgement, Wayback shows that they specifically added the code to their homepage at the same time as the publishing of the (second) apology.