Comment by gruez
3 hours ago
>Anthropic cannot tell you what you can and cannot do with the LLM's output, they do not own that, its public domain.
And are they actually doing this? For instance, if you read their press releases about distillation attacks[1], they're not asserting copyright over the outputs, only alleging "fraudulent accounts". So far as I can tell they're not even engaging in legal action.
[1]https://www.anthropic.com/news/detecting-and-preventing-dist...
They aren't taking legal action yet, no, because they have no legal ground to stand on. But they are pushing lawmakers to do something [1]
They are also constantly using the word "illicit" and theft in their communications, and in their lobbying, when there nothing illicit about using model output to train another model. They are trying to create an aura of criminality where none exists.
> But distillation can also be used for illicit purposes: competitors can use it to acquire powerful capabilities from other labs in a fraction of the time, and at a fraction of the cost, that it would take to develop them independently.
They do have leverage over fraudulent accounts, yes, but the resulting distillation from those is out of their control under the current legal framework. There's nothing they can do about it, for now.
[1] https://arstechnica.com/tech-policy/2026/06/anthropic-claims...
>They are also constantly using the word "illicit" and theft in their communications, and in their lobbying, when there nothing illicit about using model output to train another model. They are trying to create an aura of criminality where none exists.
I don't see how this is any different than say linkedin sending cease and desist letters invoking the CFAA, DMCA, and "trespass".
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/HiQ_Labs_v._LinkedIn#Backgroun...