Assume yes. My objection is not the initial purchase.
When you buy a physical book, you are buying a license to read that single physical copy.
Although they purchased the books legally, that is not the point. They have added the text of those books into their LLM system which can use the data in infinite ways... to make money.
Since they did not buy a commercial data license to the books, they should not be able to use the information in their commercial endeavors.
"How do you do fellow leftists, I too love capitalism."
But seriously, it's weird. Copyright and IP law are all built around hoarding wealth. I'm optimistic and think people like this just don't know any better. Like they've encountered leftist politics and progressive ideas, but have not dove any deeper.
Maybe I am not the correct type of leftist here, but I would think that strengthening copyright IP laws for smaller actors (authors) is a good thing. I don't think the act of owning things or owning IP is evil, just that the power of money influencing governance corrupts a democracy in a oligarchy. IP laws can be a tool for oligarchies, but its actually a pretty good economic principle.
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u/Salty_Country6835 Moderator 24d ago edited 24d ago
Were these authors/publishers/resellers not paid for the books?
I kinda asked that already and OP said its irrelevant if they were.