LLMs don’t create anything new. They have limited access to what they can be based on, and all assumptions made by it are based on that data. They do not learn new things or present new ideas. Only ideas that have been already done and are present in their training.

Transformative works are not a thing.

If you copy the copyrightable elements of another work, you have created a derivative work. That work needs to be transformative in order to be eligible for its own copyright, but being transformative alone is not enough to make it non-infringing.

There are four fair use factors. Transformativeness is only considered by one of them. That is not enough to make a fair use.

Aye, but I'm thinking the whole notion of copyright is banking on the fact that human beings are inherently lazy and not everyone will start churning out books in the same universe or style. And if they do, it takes quite some time to get the finished product and they just get sued for it. It's easy, because there's a single target.

So there's an extra deterrent to people writing and publishing a new harry potter novel, unaffiliated with the current owner of the copyright. Invest all that time and resources just to be sued? Nah...

Issue with generating stuff with 'puters is that you invest way less time, so the same issue pops up for the copyright owner, they're just DDoS-ed on their possible attack routes. Will they really sue thousands or hundreds of thoudands of internet randos generating harry potter erotica using a LLM? Would you even know who they are? People can hide money away in Switzerland from entite governments, I'm sure there are ways to hide your identity from a book publisher.

It was never about the content, it's about the opportunities the technology provides to halt the gears of the system that works to enforce questionable laws. So they're nipping it in the bud.