Top all-time · #2325
TechnoLlama
Personal blog · technollama.co.ukaiculture
TechnoLlama is a personal blog at technollama.co.uk about ai and culture. Since 2010, 33 different Hacker News readers have linked it 63 times, most often “Is GitHub’s Copilot potentially infringing copyright?”. It is still writing: the last post was on 2026-10-31, and you can follow it by feed.
Too few sampled comments (13) to say how often HN recommends it.?
Why HN links it
HN readers cite TechnoLlama's posts on GPL and licence-versus-contract law, AI and copyright, and crypto and NFT regulation as references for their own legal points. Mostly cited as support, rarely praised.
Summarised by Claude from a sample of 13 HN comments that link here. Each comment is marked recommending, critical or neutral (citing without judging); how this works.
TechnoLlama
Most-linked posts?
- Is GitHub’s Copilot potentially infringing copyright?4 people · 4 mentions · first linked 2021-06-30
- A short guide to the copyright wars2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2024-09-10
- /us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-contract2 people · 3 mentions · first linked 2023-08-28
- High Court rules that Getty vs. Stability AI case can proceed2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2023-12-06
- Can a Dutch case about RSS teach us anything about AI copyright?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2024-12-01
- DALL·E goes commercial, but what about copyright?2 people · 2 mentions · first linked 2022-08-25
What Hacker News says?
TBH I don't know why the FSF had been pushing for this 'not a contract' narrative for so long either. Maybe bad lawyering. Or some aversion to anything that looks like an EULA or that kind of radical-ideological shit. PS: I found this link when digging in my archives: https://www.technollama.co.uk/us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-con... That the GPL is a contract hardly came as any surprise to people familiar with the law…
Comment linking /us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-contract
on “From where I left”Submitted Copyright infringement in AI art as a story · 139 points
HN discussionI didn't say contracts being rejected by the courts. I said the FSF had a legal theory that "GPL is a license, not a contract", which was rejected by the courts. Some reading: https://www.technollama.co.uk/us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-con... Further cases: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=24478769
Comment linking /us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-contract
on “From where I left”Submitted Crypto Winter, or Crypto Ice Age? as a story · 67 points
HN discussionSo this license granted the purchaser permission to use Disney IP in exchange for the purchase price of the book...how is that different from a contract? The distinction between a contract and a license is a lot smaller than most people in software seem to think it is [1]. [1] https://www.technollama.co.uk/a-licence-or-a-contract
Comment linking /a-licence-or-a-contract
on “Disney claims anyone using a Twitter hashtag is agreeing to their terms of use”Submitted Is it time to look at monetisation as a new exclusive right of the author? as a story · 56 points
HN discussionA license is a contract. I don't understand the artificial distinction between the two, specifically in reference to GNU GPL. http://www.technollama.co.uk/a-licence-or-a-contract
Comment linking /a-licence-or-a-contract
on “A federal court has denied a pre-trial motion to dismiss a GPL enforcement case”Submitted Encouraging open source could land you in trouble as a story · 34 points
HN discussionHaven't you watched "Line Goes Up - The Problem With NFTs" yet? It's about a whole lot more than just NFTs. Your question is thoroughly addressed and truthfully answered in that video. Also see his references and citations in "Sources and Further Reading" for more proof. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YQ_xWvX1n9g Sources and Further Reading: https://web3isgoinggreat.com/ https://tante.cc/2021/12/17/the-third-web/ h…
Comment linking /platform-is-law-the-cautionary-tale-of-stolen-nfts
on “Bitconnect founder indicted in global $2.4B cryptocurrency scheme”Submitted Laion wins copyright infringement lawsuit in German court as a story · 11 points
HN discussionThaler specifically asks for himself to be given the copyright assignment in the filing, claiming that the AI is essentially creating it in a work-for-hire. He does not ask for the Creativity Machine to be assigned the copyright. >In that case, a human is providing a prompt to the model (providing creative input), and asking if they themselves count as the author (a human rather than a neural net), so it seems like…
Comment linking /dall%c2%b7e-goes-commercial-but-what-about-copyright
on “A Web UI for Stable Diffusion”Submitted Should robot artists be given copyright protection? as a story · 6 points
HN discussion> Even with an MIT license it is a copyright violation to copy the code without attribution. That was my take originally, but apparently this is not as cut and dry as you may think: https://www.technollama.co.uk/is-githubs-copilot-potentially...
Comment linking /is-githubs-copilot-potentially-infringing-copyright
on “GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you”Submitted What's going on with AI copyright authorship? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionFraming this as learning is unhelpful. Copilot isn't just learning. It can reproduce code it saw during training verbatim. It will even reproduce the GPLv3 licence itself. If you copy-paste code from a GPLv3-licenced sourced without attribution, it's a copyright violation. Why should it be different for Copilot? EDIT: After more reading on the subject, I'm willing to accept that copyright infringement is unlikely he…
Comment linking /is-githubs-copilot-potentially-infringing-copyright
on “GitHub-Next”Submitted Can a Dutch case about RSS teach us anything about AI copyright? as a story · 4 points
HN discussionOr produces the watermark from the copyright holder which even Getty can see it is theirs [0], implying that Stability AI trained on Getty's images without their permission and tried to commercialize it via DreamStudio. [0] https://www.technollama.co.uk/high-court-rules-that-getty-v-... [1] https://www.theverge.com/2023/1/17/23558516/ai-art-copyright...
Comment linking /high-court-rules-that-getty-v-stability-ai-case-can-proceed
on “Japan Goes All In: Copyright Doesn't Apply to AI Training”Submitted Artists file class-action lawsuit against Stability AI, Midjourney, more as a story · 4 points
HN discussionIt seems the more interesting legal question is not regarding input, but whom owns the copyrights of the output, if any. Interesting article: https://www.technollama.co.uk/dall%C2%B7e-goes-commercial-bu... If I interpret that article correctly, at least Dall-e does not claim copyright on the generation nor does it grant it to the person writing the prompt. The copyright question seems entirely unanswered. Perhaps th…
Comment linking /dall%C2%B7e-goes-commercial-but-what-about-copyright
on “Copyright infringement in AI art”Submitted Sora 2 and the end of copyright as we know it as a story · 3 points
HN discussionInteresting link from the 'Talk' page there - http://www.technollama.co.uk/a-look-at-the-bitcoin-network-t... This seems to confirm a lot of what people say about BTC - that it's a vehicle for speculation and hoarding, and that all the major economic activity is concentrated at the exchanges. Though it could be a little out of date now.
Comment linking /a-look-at-the-bitcoin-network-transaction-history
on “Bitcoin hedge fund”Submitted Is GitHub’s Copilot potentially infringing copyright? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionAnd how about the push-back from game developers who don't want to spend the extra incredible amount of work they would have to invest to enable importing digital assets from other games to unbalance and pollute their own games and cut into their revenue? If you were an actual game developer yourself, this would be obvious to you. >The push back from gamers has been non-stop and intense. I don't get it. You should g…
Comment linking /platform-is-law-the-cautionary-tale-of-stolen-nfts
on “SEC brought its first non-fungible token enforcement action”Submitted Why are we still struggling with hyper-linking and copyright law? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionCommon law countries (including the USA) don't limit consideration to cash. It can (and indeed has) been argued that there is consideration for licensor in GPL cases, see e.g. https://www.technollama.co.uk/us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-con... .
Comment linking /us-court-declares-gpl-is-a-contract
on “Why the AGPL is often unenforceable (2015)”Submitted Cat Selfie: The Next Copyright Battle? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Who wants to be forgotten? as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Why CISPA is a threat to the world as a story · 3 points
HN discussionSubmitted Everything I know about AI regulation I learned from music videos as a story · 2 points
HN discussionSubmitted V/H/S SCP: When fandom meets law and Creative Commons as a story · 2 points
HN discussion
