[HN Gopher] Gpt4free repo given takedown notice by OpenAI
       ___________________________________________________________________
        
       Gpt4free repo given takedown notice by OpenAI
        
       Author : freedmand
       Score  : 241 points
       Date   : 2023-04-28 13:08 UTC (9 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (github.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (github.com)
        
       | mugivarra69 wrote:
       | so dev has a proxy to inf instance of openai?
        
       | jesprenj wrote:
       | I made a mirror just in case: http://ni.4a.si/anonymous/gpt4free/
        
       | MuffinFlavored wrote:
       | https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/tree/7ef85f46716bb39f1e19...
       | last commit before "we got a takedown" was in README
        
         | lvncelot wrote:
         | Thanks for the link, seems weird that they've nuked the rest of
         | the README instead of just posting that update at the top.
        
           | MuffinFlavored wrote:
           | I wonder how long until GitHub acts on the DMCA? I am not
           | familiar with the process.
           | 
           | OpenAI issues DMCA to GitHub, GitHub passes it along to the
           | user, user... has the right to ignore it and leave all of the
           | content up and update the README with a poem?
        
             | ranger_danger wrote:
             | Github first disables the repo as soon as the report is
             | received, and then waits for a response/appeal from the
             | user before any further action is taken.
        
               | MuffinFlavored wrote:
               | Why isn't this repo disabled then yet? They already
               | appealed and... won? Or you just have to submit the
               | appeal and they enable your repo again no matter what
               | while the process plays out?
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | DMCA counternotice isn't an appeal that someone has to
               | judge. As soon as you send it to the provider, they can
               | restore access without leaving the safe harbor (if you
               | are infringing, you are still liable, but the host has
               | fulfilled their safe harbor requirements.)
               | 
               | But this may be some other C&D, the repo owner says they
               | got a "takedown" without mentioning DMCA; there is no
               | reason to assume this means Github got a DMCA notice.
        
               | vorticalbox wrote:
               | Guilty until proven innocent.
        
       | sandis wrote:
       | A lot of comments confuse this with a different repo. It has
       | nothing to do with the name. This project is/was a way to use LLM
       | APIs on someone else's dime. It's the equivalent of "S3 4 free"
       | where someone would collect exposed AWS credentials and use them
       | to store their stuff.
        
         | charcircuit wrote:
         | This isn't about exposed credentials though. It would be like
         | an autmatic image uploder that could pick an image hosting site
         | such as imgur and upload the image for you and give you a link.
         | Services are offering the ability to host images for you. You
         | aren't stealing imgur's s3 credentials. They just let any user
         | upload images for free despite the fact it technically costs
         | them money to host the file for you. Similarly there are sites
         | offering the ability to serve LLM requests for you for free.
        
           | hombre_fatal wrote:
           | No, the 1:1 analogy you're looking for is realizing someone
           | has a poorly protected api.domain.com endpoint that uploads
           | images to their S3 bucket and then using that to host your
           | own images in their bucket instead of paying for your own.
           | 
           | Gpt4free uses API vulnerabilities that ultimately proxy to
           | OpenAI's API with someone else's OpenAI credentials so that
           | you don't have to pay for it. That's the whole gimmick.
           | 
           | These API endpoints aren't public service open relays which
           | seems to be what you're trying to claim in your analogy:
           | 
           | - https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/issues/153
           | 
           | - https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/issues/125
        
             | charcircuit wrote:
             | >These API endpoints aren't public service open relays
             | which seems to be what you're trying to claim in your
             | analogy:
             | 
             | The whole point of the project is that they are. It's a
             | compilation of public, free APIs that have been found.
             | Those issues you linked are from people who don't
             | understand that it's expensive to run a free relay for a
             | paid service.
        
           | sreejithr wrote:
           | No service allows you to upload to some other user's Imgur
           | account. The services like the ones you mentioned usually
           | provide a service and do it on the user's behalf to the
           | user's account.
        
             | charcircuit wrote:
             | I am talking about not having an account. Anonymous users
             | can call the API and have things done for them.
        
       | can16358p wrote:
       | I didn't know about this project. Thanks to the takedown notice
       | I'll immediatelly clone it and start using it.
       | 
       | Thank you OpenAI for playing a role in me finding an alternative!
        
         | dcow wrote:
         | Go for it, it's not a GPT4 alternative anyway. Just an
         | confusingly named project that muddies the waters.
        
           | MacsHeadroom wrote:
           | It is literally GPT4. This is not the similarly named open
           | source LLM "GPT4All."
           | 
           | GPT4Free is an API reverse engineering and proxy project
           | which exposes an API to use GPT4 by proxy through GPT4 based
           | services like the search engine Phind.
           | 
           | Essentially you are using the reverse engineered services
           | OpenAI credits to access GPT4 instead of using your own
           | OpenAI account.
        
             | dcow wrote:
             | Then these services need to model their threats with more
             | sophistication. The existence of this project indicates
             | there are security vulnerabilities in services that use
             | OpenAI. In any case, I maintain that increased attention to
             | this topic is a good thing rather than a bad thing, which
             | is contrary to what GGP was suggesting when they referenced
             | the Streisand effect.
        
         | 64operator wrote:
         | It's been taken down, how can you clone it? Anyway if anybody
         | has links to a mirror that'd be great. Still wondering why
         | people don't self-host.
        
           | jesprenj wrote:
           | A mirror I just made: http://ni.4a.si/anonymous/gpt4free/
           | 
           | It's still available on github.
        
           | hallway_monitor wrote:
           | It's still available, just cloned it.
        
         | psychphysic wrote:
         | To be honest I don't think they care about it being
         | alternative.
         | 
         | Just that people keep obnoxiously naming their projects after
         | them for visibility.
         | 
         | Imo this is exactly how this kind of polite takedown should be
         | used. If it highlighted it to you great because at least you
         | know for sure it's not OpenAIs product.
        
           | tyingq wrote:
           | I suppose, since the substring "gpt4" is there. But,
           | "generative pre-trained transformer -> gpt" seems fair game.
           | Other companies use that acronym, so there's "EinsteinGPT",
           | "BloombergGPT", etc.
        
           | overthrow wrote:
           | GPT is a generic acronym - the wikipedia article writes it
           | out in lowercase.
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Generative_pre-
           | trained_transfo...
           | 
           | gpt4free means "gpt for free" and also predates GPT-4. I
           | don't think it was meant to be obnoxious or cause confusion.
        
             | psychphysic wrote:
             | They should just call it FreeGPT that's what FreeBSD did.
             | So did FreeNAS, FreePascal and FreeType.
             | 
             | But it's clear and obvious to me that they saw GPT2 then
             | GPT3 and thought well let's pun on it with GPT4.
             | 
             | First line of the wiki you link
             | 
             | > Generative pre-trained transformers (GPT) are a family of
             | large language models (LLMs),[1][2] which was introduced in
             | 2018 by the American artificial intelligence organization
             | *OpenAI*
             | 
             | Emphasis added.
        
               | spookie wrote:
               | I'm sorry but that doesn't track. There's no need to be
               | this agressive.
        
               | radarsat1 wrote:
               | Digression, but why do they call it "pre-trained"? Don't
               | they train it from scratch? Or is the point that _they_
               | pretrain it and it 's intended only for downstream fine
               | tuning ok specific tasks? If so, does ChatGPT use a fine-
               | tuned version? Is the non-finetuned version good for
               | anything on its own?
        
         | blatant303 wrote:
         | No. Thank YOU for giving me the idea of cloning that repo.
        
       | rambojohnson wrote:
       | not sure what's justifying the pearl-clutching here... they've
       | openly stated they are basically repurposing actual ChatGPT APIs
       | from openai through some "reverse engineered private APIs" --
       | uhh..
        
       | kernal wrote:
       | Streisand effect engaged.
        
       | jacquesm wrote:
       | What are the chances of the conflict of interest (or lack
       | thereof) between OpenAI/Microsoft/Github being an issue here? I'm
       | kind of surprised they even bothered with a takedown request.
        
       | numpad0 wrote:
       | Looks like it was a "paywall bypass" for GPT-3.5/GPT-4 through
       | vulnerable third parties. DMCA forbids access control
       | circumvention, among other things, so seems like a takedown is
       | expected.
        
         | codedokode wrote:
         | But isn't DMCA about protecting copyrighted content? And the
         | copyright to ChatGPT responses must belong to the one who have
         | asked a question because ChatGPT is just a tool. Whoever is
         | using the tool should own the copyright on replies.
        
           | numpad0 wrote:
           | IANAL, not even US Person, but 17 USC ss 1201 (a)(1)(A)
           | states: "No person shall circumvent a technological measure
           | that effectively controls access to a work protected under
           | this title. ...".
           | 
           | Is "work" defined anywhere by law or by precedents? I just
           | genuinely don't know. It seems to me that depending on that,
           | the OpenAI API might be considered "work" just like a
           | copyrighted manuscript. I'd also think there must be some
           | other laws forbidding _hacking_ , but DMCA must have a fast
           | track everywhere.
        
           | glitchc wrote:
           | Yes, and DMCA includes specific protections against breaking
           | or circumventing locks that restrict access to copyrighted
           | content.
        
       | oli5679 wrote:
       | Here is an interesting poem that the repo maintainer committed as
       | a readme, incase anyone doesn't click the link:
       | We got a takedown request by openai's legal team...
       | here is a lil poem you can read in the meantime, while I am
       | investigating it:              A little boy sat, in his humble
       | abode.         He tinkered and toyed with devtools galore,
       | And found himself curious, eager for more.              He copy-
       | pasted requests, with glee and delight,         A personal
       | project, to last him the night.         For educational purposes,
       | and fun it was too,         This little boy's journey had just
       | begun anew.              Now far away, in a tower so grand,
       | A big company stood, ruling the land.         Their software was
       | mighty, their power supreme,         But they never expected this
       | boy and his dream.              As he played with their code,
       | they started to fret,         "What if he breaks it? What if
       | we're upset?"         They panicked and worried, their faces
       | turned red,         As visions of chaos danced in their head.
       | The CEO paced in his office so wide,         His minions all
       | scurrying to hide.         "Who is this child?" he cried out in
       | fear,         "Who dares to disrupt our digital sphere?"
       | The developers gathered, their keyboards ablaze,         To
       | analyze the boy's mischievous ways.         They studied his
       | project, they pored through his code,         And soon they
       | discovered his humble abode.              "We must stop him!"
       | they cried with a shiver,         "This little boy's making our
       | company quiver!"         So they plotted and schemed to halt his
       | advance,         To put an end to his digital dance.
       | ( I did not write it )              discord:
       | https://discord.com/gpt4free
        
       | ziml77 wrote:
       | It's a project that lets you piggyback off of others' ChatGPT API
       | keys without their permission? If so, then it seems like it would
       | violate both OpenAI's ToS as well as the ToS for any site that is
       | being used as a proxy.
       | 
       | And is this a DMCA takedown? It's not actually specified in the
       | readme update and I would have thought that the repo would have
       | been hidden by now if it was one. Plus I'm not sure what they'd
       | be claiming copyright on here (the API maybe?)
        
         | junon wrote:
         | I mean... I know this isn't _legally_ the same, but OpenAI has
         | sold a repackaged version of all of _our_ data, too.
        
           | glitchc wrote:
           | And any code you write is a repackaged version of the
           | compiler. Spot the difference? Should the maker of the
           | compiler claim ownership of your binary?
        
           | IshKebab wrote:
           | Just like all the code you write is just code you read
           | elsewhere "repackaged". Ok sometimes you come up with what
           | _seems_ to be novel code, but we all know really you 're just
           | a sophisticated pattern matcher and you're just typing out
           | the code you think is best at any given moment, based on
           | everything you've seen and learnt from.
        
       | tommek4077 wrote:
       | Why would you put something like this on github? Are there no
       | "Hacker" forums anymore?
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | neom wrote:
       | Alright but we don't know enough here to evaluate the legitimacy
       | of the request from OpenAI. Very little to go on.
        
         | verdverm wrote:
         | Given the relationship between MS, GitHub, and OpenAI, do we
         | think there will be a fair analysis or review? Is GitHub still
         | independent enough or not?
        
           | neom wrote:
           | We don't even know what type of takedown request they
           | received my friend. There are many ways to legally request
           | removal, the linked page explains nothing. Who knows what's
           | going on based on the current information.
        
         | danwee wrote:
         | Does it really matter? Microsoft owns GitHub, and unofficially
         | owns OpenAI, so MS can do whatever they want with their toys.
        
       | [deleted]
        
       | zeven7 wrote:
       | Predictable. You could just come up with an original name and be
       | fine. "GPT4" obviously means the OpenAI product to people.
       | 
       | For those ootl, here's the previous thread where OP was given a
       | lot of advice from the HN community to change the name
       | https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=35608437
        
         | dcow wrote:
         | Yep. It's an affinity scam. It has nothing to do with GPT4.
         | IIRC it's just some model with a GPT-like interface offered
         | _for_ free. Once they change their name to something that isn
         | 't trying to catch GPT4's sails in an completely dishonest and
         | scummy manner, we can discuss it further.
         | 
         | To the CrabLang folks,: this is why you care about trademarks.
         | So when someone does this you can protect your project from
         | scammers.
         | 
         | EDIT I might be conflating GPT4all with this... which doesn't
         | make the situation any better and kinda proves my point. This
         | type of scam is confusing and deceptive. And this one seems
         | actively malignant.
        
           | ranger_danger wrote:
           | >this is why you care about trademarks
           | 
           | Yes but often FOSS projects and their developers do not have
           | the money or desire to: enforce any trademark or license,
           | apply for the trademark itself, or market the trademark in
           | any meaningful way.
        
             | dcow wrote:
             | I should have said (to the CrabLang folks): this is why the
             | _Rust foundation_ cares about trademarks.
        
           | anonymousiam wrote:
           | The DMCA is not applicable to trademarks.
           | 
           | https://theholmesfirm.com/takedown-notices-why-trademarks-
           | an...
        
         | htareque wrote:
         | Correct me if I'm wrong, but these seem like two different
         | projects: gpt4all and gpt4free, by different people.
        
           | zeven7 wrote:
           | Ah, I didn't realize it was a different project. Either way,
           | it seems like they share the same problem.
        
           | MacsHeadroom wrote:
           | You are correct. This is not the similarly named open source
           | LLM "GPT4All."
           | 
           | GPT4Free is an API reverse engineering and proxy project
           | which exposes an API to use the real GPT4 by proxy through
           | GPT4 based services like the search engine Phind.
        
       | seydor wrote:
       | This is not the outrage you re looking for, move along.
       | 
       | And developers can use their time much more productively to
       | improve one of the many open source alternativez
        
       | supermatt wrote:
       | Not to be confused with gpt4all https://github.com/nomic-
       | ai/gpt4all which is a "free" GPT LLM.
       | 
       | It seems this gpt4free was basically hijacking 3rd parties
       | services that use GPT-4, bypassing the official OpenAI APIs in
       | order to avoid paying for inference. Of course, that means that
       | the hijacked 3rd parties are the ones footing the bill...
       | 
       | I'm not surprised they have been issued a takedown notice.
        
         | jrochkind1 wrote:
         | It's not clear to me that DMCA Takedown is an applicable legal
         | process for that, but I guess when does that ever stop anyone
         | these days.
         | 
         | What specific US laws do folks think that repo (or
         | running/using the software in that repo) might have been
         | violating? (I agree it seems likely that it's _some_ law, I'm
         | not challenging that just asking if anyone has a legal analysis
         | they want to share).
        
           | bjornsing wrote:
           | Fraud?
        
           | dcow wrote:
           | Yeah what's curious to me is why OpenAI has grounds here vs
           | [the abused 3rd parties]. Maybe they are trying to stand up
           | for the people using their API as a courtesy because they
           | want them to stay in business or something, but it seems the
           | damaged parties are the 3rd party services bankrolling the
           | access, and so they'd need to pursue legal action and/or
           | patch their services.
           | 
           | I do imagine OpenAI has something in their terms where you're
           | not allowed to use their APIs unless you agree to their
           | terms, which includes payment and not using other accounts
           | than your own (fraud). So maybe that's it?
        
           | lcnPylGDnU4H9OF wrote:
           | CFAA[0] is one that comes to mind but I also think that has
           | different issues with _what might be_ overly vague
           | terminology. It at least seems more applicable to this,
           | though I am certainly not a legal expert.
           | 
           | [0]
           | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act
        
             | henryfjordan wrote:
             | There was a somewhat recent supreme court ruling that said
             | just breaking some ToS is not a CFAA violation. Unless the
             | gpt4free repo had straight up stolen credentials the CFAA
             | shouldn't apply.
        
           | heyyyouu wrote:
           | It's an excellent point. DMCA is for copyright. My take (I
           | have a background in this area but IANAL): I think they can
           | get away with the copyright because of the name/content usage
           | (no one of the opposite end of the request is going to
           | question that, it seems obvious), but I think it's clear to
           | those in the know that's not WHY they went after this one.
           | 
           | In theory, they could probably use DCMA to go after anyone
           | using the terms (right or wrong). In practicality, they used
           | it as a tool to go after this particular one because they
           | didn't like what they were doing.
        
             | kevin_thibedeau wrote:
             | DMCA covers circumvention devices, not just directly
             | infringing material.
        
               | l33t233372 wrote:
               | See for example, the group arrested for selling devices
               | that allowed people to take control of their own Nintendo
               | Switch systems[1].
               | 
               | Although, after digging into the story, it looks like
               | they may have also operated an illicit app store
               | containing cracked IPs, so that situation is a little
               | murky.
               | 
               | [1] https://www.nintendolife.com/news/2023/04/nintendo-
               | hacker-ga...
        
               | ronsor wrote:
               | I think jailbreaking is a current exception to the DMCA
               | (according to the copyright office's latest report). An
               | app store full of cracked games is obviously illegal,
               | though.
        
           | 0xDEF wrote:
           | They should be happy that OpenAI went after them with the
           | DMCA and not for computer hacking and fraud, which is what
           | they technically did by hijacking other people's API keys.
        
           | bhaney wrote:
           | Does "takedown notice" automatically equal "DMCA"? The repo
           | itself and the parent to your comment don't mention DMCA at
           | all.
        
             | jrochkind1 wrote:
             | Hm, good point, I think of "takedown notice" as being about
             | the DMCA, because I never heard that term at all before the
             | DMCA, I think of it as a term of art from DMCA. But people
             | could be using it differently or mis-using it.
             | 
             | However, this is on Github. Github specifically has a "DMCA
             | Takedown Policy" [1]. I don't believe they have any other
             | policy or procedure involving a "takedown notice". But
             | sure, I could be wrong, or the notice on the repo could be
             | not quite right about what's going on.
             | 
             | Other companies, even big ones, will just take down
             | anything a big corporation asks them to, with no written
             | policy or a written policy basically saying that's what
             | they'll do, while using language implying the DMCA (like
             | "takedown notice"), when that's not what they're doing at
             | all. But Github has actually been pretty good at actually
             | doing this according to the procedure spelled out in DMCA,
             | and not just randomly for whatever another big corporation
             | might want. And being clear about what they're doing why if
             | they're doing something else.
             | 
             | [1] https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/content-removal-
             | polic...
        
               | mkishi wrote:
               | From the submission (the repo's readme):
               | 
               | > We got a takedown request by openai's legal team...
               | 
               | Did Github take a separate action somewhere?
        
           | glitchc wrote:
           | A lawyer must have advised this, as financial fraud likely
           | has a higher burden of proof. They might still proceed with
           | criminal charges (if a DA agrees) or a lawsuit.
        
         | gumballindie wrote:
         | > Of course, that means that the hijacked 3rd parties are the
         | ones footing the bill...
         | 
         | A bit like we are footing the bill for openai's training data.
        
           | jamesjuicy55 wrote:
           | [flagged]
        
           | mock-possum wrote:
           | who's 'we,' white man? I've never been billed.
        
             | gumballindie wrote:
             | > white man?
             | 
             | Eh?
             | 
             | > I've never been billed.
             | 
             | Curious how much people's bills are inflated by ai crawlers
             | constantly sucking their data and how much in revenue is
             | lost since traffic is not brought to their websites. And
             | since there's no way to stop this theft, since most of them
             | don't honor robots.txt, people are forced to remove
             | content. Perhaps those charged for bandwidth are losing
             | some dime right now.
        
               | jsnell wrote:
               | > Eh?
               | 
               | It's the punchline of a vaguely racist old joke involving
               | Lone Ranger and Tonto. I have to admit that I also often
               | think of when somebody uses "we" inappropriately to make
               | their opinion or experience appear universal.
               | 
               | (But as seen here, you can't really just drop the
               | punchline into a conversation.)
        
               | [deleted]
        
           | ivalm wrote:
           | They are providing a service, we pay for it, and they
           | reinvest in improving the service. That's the basic business
           | practice.
        
             | dubcanada wrote:
             | I think you missed the memo of the comment.
             | 
             | They were referring to the fact that everything ChatGPT is
             | built on is other peoples work. Beyond the actual building
             | of the model details, there is nothing that ChatGPT owns.
             | All the content they use to train, all of the art they use
             | to train. Everything is stolen/used without permission.
             | Obviously there is more to it than that, because you
             | published it on the internet. But that's a different topic.
        
               | glitchc wrote:
               | This is an incorrect and unfair statement that would not
               | pass the test in any court of law. ChatGPT uniquely
               | orders information in a way that gives them a competitive
               | advantage in the marketplace. While the source
               | information is public, the ordering of it is proprietary
               | and a trade secret.
               | 
               | Your argument is a reductio ad absurdum to "everything is
               | made of atoms and no one ones atoms, ergo no one owns
               | anything."
        
               | mcguire wrote:
               | The source information in public? Copyright isn't a thing
               | anymore?
               | 
               | That's news to me.
        
               | glitchc wrote:
               | If you think ChatGPT has infringed on your copyright, you
               | have legal recourse. Do you have evidence?
        
               | Kiro wrote:
               | Imagine considering your random posts on reddit "work"
               | and thinking people are stealing it when they train their
               | models on your internet drivel.
        
               | msla wrote:
               | So it's valueless when the original author wants it to
               | have value and valuable when OpenAI wants it to have
               | value?
               | 
               | I am all for training AIs, but at least exhibit some
               | self-consistency in your arguments!
        
               | squeaky-clean wrote:
               | A penny is close to valueless. A trillion pennies is a
               | lot of value.
        
               | salad-tycoon wrote:
               | All the misguided comments of my younger years coming to
               | haunt me? Nightmare. Luckily I deleted my live journal
               | many moons ago.
        
               | px43 wrote:
               | Everything that anyone has ever built is built on the
               | works of others. This is how we progress as a species.
               | The entire reason why the internet is so revolutionary is
               | that it allows for permissionless innovation.
        
               | vkou wrote:
               | Then OpenAI should allow us to do some permissionless
               | innovation on their work.
               | 
               | Strangly enough, it's only interested in promoting
               | permissionless innovation when it stands to profit. It
               | plunders the commons, and gives nothing unencumbered
               | back.
        
               | dubcanada wrote:
               | I am in no way suggesting that it is wrong. I do however
               | feel this level of "built upon the work of others" is
               | different.
        
               | whitepaint wrote:
               | Right, so what's the problem with gpt4free then?
        
               | MichaelZuo wrote:
               | They're consuming real electricity and real time on
               | servers that don't belong to them nor do they have
               | permission to use.
        
               | ChatGTP wrote:
               | Do you see the contradiction here ?
               | 
               | ChatGPT-4 is built on real peoples time.
        
               | MichaelZuo wrote:
               | Conveniently ignoring the 'real electricity' part doesn't
               | help your case.
        
               | jstummbillig wrote:
               | This litany is already getting old and it's just 2 month
               | in.
               | 
               | All intellectual property is inherently stolen. Just let
               | it go.
        
               | cmdialog wrote:
               | I wonder how large the Venn overlap is for people who
               | think IP is good and people who don't think hip hop is
               | "real music"?
        
               | LordDragonfang wrote:
               | Two months? The (ai-luddite) preachers have been reciting
               | this litany since the first decent diffusion models
               | released over a year ago. They haven't slowed down any.
        
               | cormacrelf wrote:
               | The reason intellectual property was invented was to
               | encourage people to go and create new things and share
               | them, the logic being that having a monopoly on your own
               | work by default means you can make money from being
               | creative and therefore people will choose to do it. The
               | reverse is already happening, people are deciding
               | (privately) not to publish things they have created
               | because they rightly assume it will be stolen by an AI,
               | monetised and used to destroy their own job. It is not
               | merely complaining for its own sake. There is a good
               | amount of theft and a bad amount of theft. As theft
               | increases unchecked the amount of new output is poised to
               | decline.
        
               | jstummbillig wrote:
               | All true.
               | 
               | I don't see any world where it matters in the slightest.
               | When it comes to how we deal with currently available
               | training data nothing will change, first because of
               | politics but also because people want the LLMs superpower
               | more than they want to protect IP of a few individuals.
               | And I firmly believe that no human training data that has
               | not been produced and publishes today will play any
               | significant role in future AI development.
               | 
               | We are simply too slow.
        
               | chefandy wrote:
               | The topic's biggest cop-out. Intellectual property
               | doesn't exist in a vacuum. I have limited-to-zero
               | sympathy for corporate entities like Getty images that
               | hoard IP, but our society's social contract says labor
               | isn't free unless people donate it. We need to
               | _implement_ some sort of alternate compensation system
               | _before_ entirely disregarding IP so we don 't pull the
               | rug out from under perfectly honest independent creatives
               | with kids and mortgages and medical bills plying their
               | craft in an established system. Until then, taking the
               | fruits of creative labor without permission is theft that
               | is _much more consequential and much less morally
               | defensible_ than what you describe.
               | 
               | I'll bet if someone outside of our IP jurisdiction
               | figured out a way to reliably and thoroughly reverse
               | engineer the most complex commercial software from
               | binaries so people could spit out a working, fully-
               | customized copy of a commercial application from a
               | prompt, and the entirety of the software development
               | market would soon collapse, the tenor of this
               | conversation would be very different.
               | 
               | Maybe the people with the very ethically defensible
               | stance that private property is theft would be totally
               | fine with OpenAI knocking down your home to build their
               | new headquarters without compensating you? Imagine the
               | progress! ( _hint: they probably wouldn 't be ok with
               | it_)
               | 
               |  _None_ of this stuff exists in a vacuum. _None of it._
        
               | jstummbillig wrote:
               | You are right, the (potential) negative impact AI
               | training has on what people do will only manifest in the
               | future.
               | 
               | But no matter how I or anyone else feel about the car or
               | how bad it is for the environment, or how much we dislike
               | the noise they impose on us, it's simply not going to
               | bring back the horse.
               | 
               | There just is no conceivable future. It's dead.
        
               | chefandy wrote:
               | Another cop-out. No, the horse isn't dead. This
               | technology is at its precipice and society outside of the
               | tech world _hasn 't even started to react yet_ let alone
               | develop entrenched immutable norms surrounding it. A good
               | portion of what these algorithms put out isn't even
               | particularly commercially useful... yet. There's a lot of
               | time to change policy, to change corporate norms, to
               | change compensation structures, and to change
               | perspectives. Just because you find that prospect
               | inconvenient compared to just throwing up your hands and
               | saying _fuck it,_ likely because you benefit from doing
               | so, doesn 't mean that you don't have a moral obligation
               | to reduce the harm these behaviors will result in.
               | 
               | Beyond that, the technology is just the catalyst. It's a
               | tool. The problem is what people are doing with it.
               | That's an ongoing behavior that can be changed-- not a
               | bell you can't un-ring.
               | 
               | I won't claim to know what's in your head, but most
               | people I've encountered who rebuff complex topics with
               | idealistic platitudes don't really think the topics are
               | that simple. They're avoiding confronting the negative
               | consequences of a behavior they have no intention of
               | changing to avoid damaging their moral self-image.
        
               | jstummbillig wrote:
               | Sigh, alright. Copping out of this one I guess.
        
               | devmor wrote:
               | That's all great until people stop providing intellectual
               | property for free because of the chilling effects.
               | 
               | Artists are already starting to completely paywall their
               | content.
               | 
               | How far do we let AI scraping and incorporation go? Just
               | say "fuck it" until there's nothing left to scrape other
               | than content also made by AI?
        
               | welshwelsh wrote:
               | "chilling effects" usually refers to when people decide
               | not to share things because of potential legal
               | consequences. For example, if people stop creating or
               | distributing AI art because they don't want to be sued by
               | artists for using their style, that's a chilling effect.
               | Basically the opposite of what you are describing
               | 
               | >Just say 'fuck it' until there's nothing left to scrape
               | other than content also made by AI?
               | 
               | Sounds good to me! There will always be people making
               | free art, and AI will make this much easier.
               | 
               | The thing that I think people are missing is that AI-
               | generated content CAN be used to improve AI models. There
               | is no requirement that the input data is created without
               | AI.
               | 
               | Furthermore, AI-generated content on the internet is not
               | random; it is _curated_ content. Generally speaking
               | people don 't post every image they generate with Stable
               | Diffusion, they only post the best images. If you
               | consider engagement metrics and user feedback (upvotes
               | etc), they can be a valuable and useful part of a
               | training set.
        
               | devmor wrote:
               | The fact that you think that sounds good and is not a
               | bleak and dystopian hellscape tells me that your ideal
               | future is likely my nightmare scenario.
               | 
               | I fear our views on this issue are wholly incompatible.
        
               | smoldesu wrote:
               | If we enforced intellectual property rights that harshly,
               | nothing more complex than a 6502 would have ever been
               | made.
        
               | dubcanada wrote:
               | I personally don't think IP has a place in modern
               | society. But I was mostly replying to the authors
               | comment.
               | 
               | My concerns mostly lie with the fact it's owned largely
               | by $MSFT rather than a more "open source" contributing to
               | society entity. But again that's a much different topic.
        
               | devmor wrote:
               | I'd say IP is more important in modern society than at
               | any time in history.
               | 
               | It _shouldn 't_ have a place, but so long as people
               | require the ownership of their own concepts to gain food
               | and shelter, it has to.
        
               | dcow wrote:
               | I'm sorry but you can't honestly use _stolen without
               | permission_ here. If you publish something and someone
               | else acquires it legally (because you published it for
               | free or because they paid for or otherwise obtained a
               | license to it) then you don 't get to control how the
               | work is used after the fact. You only control the terms
               | of them receiving a copy. You can't say "I didn't want my
               | work used for AI training data when I published it so
               | it's all stolen as far as I'm concerned". It just doesn't
               | work that way.
               | 
               | Now that doesn't mean you can't license your work for
               | exclusive use by humans and explicitly forbid AI training
               | data in the license applied to your work, but you'd have
               | to do that when you publish it, not retroactively.
        
           | hammyhavoc wrote:
           | Block access if you don't want them to access your data. No
           | bills created.
           | 
           | However, if AI ends up being as mainstream as the average HN
           | user is claiming, are you sure you aren't shooting yourself
           | in the foot to not have your brand and product info not
           | included in that data set if it replaces search engines?
           | 
           | Is it any different from a Google crawler? They put ads on
           | your content on the SERPs after crawling it.
        
             | gumballindie wrote:
             | Google drives traffic to your website, and generates
             | revenue. It also respects IP and gives credit. Ai crawlers
             | don't. Just because content is out in the open it doesn't
             | mean there's no license to follow when using it. If they
             | gave credit, respected IP and drove traffic then sure.
        
         | KRAKRISMOTT wrote:
         | Why is OpenAI getting involved? They are getting paid either
         | way. The third parties should do the takedown if they are not
         | happy about their endpoint being scraped.
        
           | drusepth wrote:
           | Presumably, they're looking out for their paying users (see:
           | they want to keep those paying users), who would have a
           | terrible experience if and when they found out someone else
           | had been using their APIs and/or API keys.
        
       | ranger_danger wrote:
       | Doesn't the DMCA have an exception for reverse engineering if
       | it's for the purposes of compatibility with other programs?
        
         | dragonwriter wrote:
         | The bigger issue is that none of the things here is a copyright
         | protection mechanism within the scope of the DMCA to start
         | with, so the DMCA doesn't even apply.
        
         | Paul-Craft wrote:
         | Yes, but it's not that simple:                   What
         | Exceptions Does DMCA Section 1201 Have To Allow Reverse
         | Engineering?              Section 1201 contains an exception
         | for reverse         engineering, as well as security research,
         | encryption         research, and the distribution of security
         | tools, all of         which may support reverse engineering.
         | However, these         exceptions are drafted very narrowly. If
         | your research         might implicate section 1201, consult a
         | lawyer to see if         you can do your work in a way that is
         | allowed by one of         the relevant exceptions or by an
         | exemption periodically         granted by the Copyright Office.
         | The following factors         are relevant to whether you are
         | entitled to a reverse         engineering, research or security
         | exception. However,         meeting any or all of these factors
         | will not necessarily         protect your work. The list is
         | offered just to give you         an idea of the kinds of things
         | that distinguish         permissible from impermissible reverse
         | engineering:                      You lawfully obtained the
         | right to use a computer             program;
         | You disclosed the information you obtained in a good
         | faith manner that did not enable or promote
         | copyright infringement or computer fraud;                  Your
         | sole purpose in circumventing is identifying             and
         | analyzing parts of the program needed to achieve
         | interoperability;                  The reverse engineering will
         | reveal information             necessary to achieve
         | interoperability;                  Any interoperable program
         | you created as a result of             the reverse engineering
         | is non-infringing;                  You have authorization from
         | the owner or operator of             the reverse engineered
         | software or the protected             computer system to do
         | your research;                  You are engaged in a legitimate
         | course of study, are             employed, or are appropriately
         | trained or             experienced, in the field of encryption
         | technology.                  You provide timely notice of your
         | findings to the             copyright owner.
         | 
         | https://www.eff.org/issues/coders/reverse-engineering-faq#fa...
        
           | unaindz wrote:
           | You can follow our instructions to try and appease the powers
           | that be but we deserve the right to ignore our rules and go
           | after you anyways. We are the Law.
        
           | squarefoot wrote:
           | There is a similar but less restrictive exemption in Europe,
           | specifically aimed at permitting interoperability.
           | 
           | https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-
           | content/EN/ALL/?uri=CELEX%3A...
           | 
           | On the other hand, it contains some traps that can be used to
           | put some limits back in, such as the last lines here:
           | (emphasis mine)
           | 
           | "(15) The unauthorised reproduction, translation, adaptation
           | or transformation of the form of the code in which a copy of
           | a computer program has been made available constitutes an
           | infringement of the exclusive rights of the author.
           | Nevertheless, circumstances may exist when such a
           | reproduction of the code and translation of its form are
           | indispensable to obtain the necessary information to achieve
           | the interoperability of an independently created program with
           | other programs. It has therefore to be considered that, in
           | these limited circumstances only, performance of the acts of
           | reproduction and translation by or on behalf of a person
           | having a right to use a copy of the program is legitimate and
           | compatible with fair practice and must therefore be deemed
           | not to require the authorisation of the rightholder. An
           | objective of this exception is to make it possible to connect
           | all components of a computer system, including those of
           | different manufacturers, so that they can work together.
           | _Such an exception to the author 's exclusive rights may not
           | be used in a way which prejudices the legitimate interests of
           | the rightholder_ or which conflicts with a normal
           | exploitation of the program."
        
       | greenie_beans wrote:
       | is openai encouraging people to reuse the "gpt" acronym for the
       | apps built with their api? seems like a bad idea from a branding
       | POV.
        
       | withinrafael wrote:
       | Are they really _private_ APIs if they are accessible to the
       | public in some form that can be reverse engineered?
        
         | mden wrote:
         | Is the gas in the car you parked publicly really yours
         | ("private") if there is a way to siphon it out?
         | 
         | Just because there is a way to obtain a resource doesn't make
         | it yours automatically..
        
           | ChatGTP wrote:
           | Bit like everyone's code that's used to train ChatGPT
        
           | RobotToaster wrote:
           | An API is a publicly available service.
           | 
           | It's more like having a tap with a sign over it saying "free
           | gas", then getting mad when people use it.
        
             | snet0 wrote:
             | It's more like having "free gas for people staying at this
             | motel".
        
             | [deleted]
        
           | RoyGBivCap wrote:
           | No real world analogy applies when the service is publicly
           | accessible via the internet.
        
             | Bellamy wrote:
             | If you leave a door open to your garden or house, can I
             | come and chill without asking?
        
               | Veen wrote:
               | These analogies don't work. Sending a bunch of data to a
               | computer and receiving a bunch of data in return is in no
               | way analogous to physically entering private property
               | without permission. They are not the same thing, or the
               | same order of thing, or at all comparable.
        
               | dagss wrote:
               | The only "real" thing about either of those 2 cases is
               | social conventions.
               | 
               | Is is entirely impossible to imagine a culture where
               | walking unbidden into private property is very normal but
               | pinging someone electronically without a common
               | understanding is an intrusion?
        
         | junon wrote:
         | Exactly. This is ytdownloader all over again.
        
       | rhyme-boss wrote:
       | Did their discord get taken down already? The link from the repo
       | 404s.
        
         | btbuildem wrote:
         | I just cloned it, seems fine.
        
           | rhyme-boss wrote:
           | You cloned the discord?
        
         | transitivebs wrote:
         | we're discussing this in https://www.chatgpthackers.dev discord
        
       | tinyhouse wrote:
       | That's good. It's not the wild wild west here.
        
       | transitivebs wrote:
       | I was also given a takedown notice by OpenAI for the ChatGPT
       | twitter bot github repo: https://github.com/transitive-
       | bullshit/chatgpt-twitter-bot
       | 
       | This was ~2 months ago, and I'm fortunate enough to have a direct
       | contact at OpenAI who I complained to. He came back promptly and
       | told me it was a mistake and the takedown notice was retracted. I
       | also changed the twitter bot's logo to be purple instead of green
       | to avoid future issues.
        
         | xtekky wrote:
         | Hi, would you able to contact me on discord? tekky#1810 I am
         | looking for a solution.
        
       | rolph wrote:
       | phind.com takedown request #153
       | 
       | https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/issues/153
       | 
       | ora.sh takedown request #125
       | 
       | https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/issues/125
        
       | baptiste313 wrote:
       | In case the repository disappears I share an archive of it
       | https://archive.softwareheritage.org/browse/revision/7ef85f4...
        
       | rwl4 wrote:
       | This project is designed to allow people to use ChatGPT via
       | reversed engineered private APIs. It's not surprising they went
       | after this.
       | 
       | Here's the project description from the README:
       | Have you ever come across some amazing projects that you couldn't
       | use just because you didn't have an OpenAI API key?
       | We've got you covered! This repository offers reverse-engineered
       | third-party APIs for GPT-4/3.5, sourced from various websites.
       | You can simply download this repository, and use the available
       | modules, which are designed to be used just like OpenAI's
       | official package. Unleash ChatGPT's potential for your projects,
       | now! You are welcome ; ).
       | 
       | Source:
       | https://github.com/xtekky/gpt4free/blob/6719bee133ce8202129e...
        
         | LordDragonfang wrote:
         | >projects that you couldn't use just because you didn't have an
         | OpenAI API key?
         | 
         | It's amazing how the repo phrases this like "having an OpenAI
         | API key" is something that's gatekept, rather than something
         | you get by making a free account. (You may not be able to use
         | it, but the more honest phrasing of "don't want to pay for your
         | own API usage" is apparently too transparent for what this is
         | offering.)
        
         | spookie wrote:
         | If they've actually reverse engineered I see no reason in this
         | going anywhere.
        
         | codedokode wrote:
         | How does using private APIs violate copyright?
        
           | nicce wrote:
           | Not copyright but illegal data access and service use.
        
             | Veen wrote:
             | In exactly what respect is it illegal. Keeping in mind that
             | "not complying with a corporation's policies" is not the
             | same as breaking the law.
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | > Keeping in mind that "not complying with a
               | corporation's policies" is not the same as breaking the
               | law.
               | 
               | Actually, the law says that the Terms of Service is a
               | legally-binding contract unless you can prove any
               | provision is legally considered unconscionable. However,
               | if that happens, all provisions except that provision
               | still bind. It _is_ illegal to break a legally-binding
               | contract, and you can be sued or taken to arbitration at
               | a minimum in a civil court for  "breach of contract." And
               | that's before any Computer Fraud and Abuse Act or Digital
               | Millennium Copyright Act violations.
               | 
               | Yes, corporations don't sue users for "breach of
               | contract" almost... ever. It's expensive, risky, has low
               | compensation for doing so, and is just bad PR. But they
               | legally always can.
        
               | Veen wrote:
               | I'm assuming the users of Gpt4free haven't signed up to
               | OpenAI's terms and conditions, even if they do contain
               | language prohibiting use of these private APIs. A
               | corporation can't unilaterally impose their TOS on the
               | entire population (or, at least, one would hope they
               | can't).
        
               | gjsman-1000 wrote:
               | In that case though, let's say OpenAI decided to enforce
               | their Terms of Use by potentially suing. The defendant
               | would likely have to show, whether he likes it or not,
               | that he never once signed up for ChatGPT, never once
               | signed up for the official OpenAI API, and managed to
               | perfectly reverse-engineer the API from the outside.
               | Seems unlikely to me.
               | 
               | But then of course... CFAA and DMCA. The DMCA in
               | particular, for example, doesn't consider the strength of
               | the lock in the criminality. DVDs can be cracked with 7
               | lines of Perl since 2001, but it's still a DMCA
               | violation.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > The defendant would likely have to show, whether he
               | likes it or not, that he never once signed up for
               | ChatGPT, never once signed up for the official OpenAI
               | API, and managed to perfectly reverse-engineer the API
               | from the outside.
               | 
               | These aren't reverse engineering the OpenAI API, they are
               | reverse engineering the APIs of public services that in
               | turn call the OpenAI API.
               | 
               | I'm not sure under what theory OpenAI would even sue.
               | 
               | > But then of course... CFAA and DMCA. The DMCA in
               | particular, for example, doesn't consider the strength of
               | the lock in the criminality.
               | 
               | The DMCA only applies to technology addressing
               | copyrights, and CFAA seems inapplicable to consuming the
               | backend APIs used by publicly accessible services because
               | that's just use of authorized access by a different
               | manner, outside of CFAA scope under the _Van Buren_
               | precedent.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > Actually, the law says that the Terms of Service is a
               | legally-binding contract unless you can prove any
               | provision is legally considered unconscionable
               | 
               | No, it doesn't.
               | 
               | It says they can state the terms of a contract if _all_
               | the requirements of contract formation have been met,
               | which are more than just the absence of unconscionable
               | terms.
        
               | hedora wrote:
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Ac
               | t
        
               | RoyGBivCap wrote:
               | I remember when this passed and thinking that it was all
               | the big, incompetent businesses that can afford lawyers
               | on retainer making sure that only big businesses that can
               | afford lawyers on retainer maintain their position of
               | superior power over individuals. Snuffing out any hope
               | that the little guy - who through sheer talent - can do
               | things on this incredible newfangled equalizing
               | innovation called the Internet will finally have some
               | real chance at power.
               | 
               | Bank of America used it to make people who simply changed
               | the account number in their URL bar the criminals instead
               | of them, who were completely incompetent at securing
               | access to their customer's accounts. What previously
               | would have been arguably _criminal_ negligence.
               | 
               | It placed intent above competence - _but only for those
               | who can afford lawyers._
               | 
               | And here it is again, being abused the same way.
               | 
               | Hot take: It should be repealed completely.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | Assuming that those third-party services are ones that
               | the public can access via their own web interfaces, such
               | that the only thing unauthorized is the _manner_ in which
               | the APIs are consumed, this would seem (unless I am
               | missing more specific precedent) to fall out of CFAA
               | coverage as a result of the _Van Buren v. United States_
               | decision.
        
               | from wrote:
               | I remember seeing "Help: FBI criminally charged me with
               | $6MM loss for hotlinking. I didn't do it" on HN earlier
               | this year
               | (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=30589489). Was this
               | person lying?
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | There is no indication of what the charge was, and
               | usually with hotlinking to an asset the legal issue is
               | copyright infringement (which can be criminal as well as
               | civil); that's very different from suggesting that use of
               | an API endpoint intended to be used by a public web
               | frontend is a CFAA violation.
        
               | llamataboot wrote:
               | I often wondered what the full story behind that one has
               | as OP never posted in it again and never heard a peep in
               | any sort of media story
        
               | chii wrote:
               | It's still trespassing if the private property owner did
               | not invite you in, even if there wasn't a locked door.
        
               | leothecool wrote:
               | Is it still trespassing if you ask to be let in, and the
               | butler lets you in when he's not supposed to?
        
               | djbusby wrote:
               | Yep.
        
               | circuit10 wrote:
               | If you trick the butler into letting you in by lying when
               | you are aware that the home owner doesn't want you there
               | then probably
        
               | cardosof wrote:
               | If someone I didn't grant access broke (in a very smart
               | way) into my house, turned on the lights for a minute and
               | then left, I'd still be pissed and would call it illegal.
        
               | Veen wrote:
               | The situations aren't really comparable. We're talking
               | about sending a request from a computer to a publicly
               | available API endpoint that Open AI would rather you
               | didn't, and then using the data that endpoint sends in
               | response.
               | 
               | (Somewhat tangential, the "networks as a 3D space you
               | travel around in with locations you visit" analogy does
               | more harm than good. It's not what's happening and it
               | results in muddled thinking.)
        
               | cardosof wrote:
               | I don't disagree your second paragraph, I'm just curious
               | - can you elaborate more on why is that?
        
               | minhazm wrote:
               | Something being accessible does not mean you're
               | authorized to access it. Someones house being unlocked
               | doesn't mean it's okay for you to enter. Authorization is
               | the key part here and you likely can be convicted under
               | the CFAA[1].
               | 
               | [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abus
               | e_Act
        
               | ke88y wrote:
               | This is almost certainly an instance of Unauthorized Use
               | under the CFAA and therefore criminal in the USA and any
               | jurisdictions with similarly broad anti-hacking laws.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | If those are APIs consumed by public sites, then they are
               | APIs the public is authorized to use by way of those
               | sites, and _Van Buren v. United States_ says that if you
               | are authorized to access a system, accessing it a
               | different "manner or circumstances" is not "unauthorized"
               | as that term is used in the CFAA.
        
               | numlock86 wrote:
               | What part of "private API" is the one you don't
               | understand? We could elaborate.
        
               | berkle4455 wrote:
               | These are the exact same "private API"s your browser
               | utilizes when visiting chat.openai.com and require your
               | own API keys granted to you by OpenAI.
               | 
               | Calling it illegal is utterly insane. It's just a
               | different user-agent and they'd prefer people use their
               | official ones. OpenAI literally controls the keys so if
               | they don't want someone using an alternate mechanism,
               | they can and will just ban the account.
        
               | Veen wrote:
               | I wasn't aware companies could, by fiat, declare certain
               | publicly available endpoints private, thereby compelling
               | everyone by force of law to pretend they don't exist.
        
               | s17n wrote:
               | They can. Now you know.
        
               | Veen wrote:
               | So, if I create a cat GIF API, but announce that it's a
               | private cat GIF API only I am allowed to use, I can sue
               | anyone else who uses it to retrieve a cat GIF?
        
               | [deleted]
        
               | drusepth wrote:
               | Legally and literally: yes.
               | 
               | Knowingly using a private API without authorization can
               | fall under CFAA, contract law, copyright law, trespass to
               | chattel, etc -- and you can issue a C&D and/or sue for
               | whatever is relevant.
        
               | woogley wrote:
               | People have gone to prison over guessable GET parameters
               | 
               | https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Goatse_Security#AT&T/iPad_e
               | mai...
               | 
               | https://www.praetorianprefect.com/2010/06/114000-ipad-
               | owners...
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | Citing convictions overturned on appeal probably isn't
               | the strongest evidence of illegality. (Because they were
               | overturned on threshold issues that didn't involve
               | inquiry into the substantive merits of the charges, its
               | not evidence _against_ illegality, either, but...)
        
               | woogley wrote:
               | My point is people have gone to prison over GET
               | parameters, not the legality of the it. DOJ has CFAA.
               | Abusing private APIs is flying close to the sun. Even if
               | you do get out of prison eventually
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > My point is people have gone to prison over GET
               | parameters, not the legality of the it. DOJ has CFAA.
               | 
               | And CFAA is limited by _Van Buren_.
        
               | spzb wrote:
               | My bank's website is publicly available. That doesn't
               | mean anyone is free to access my bank account. Just
               | 'cause something is accessible on the internet doesn't
               | mean you have the right to access it. Case law and
               | statute goes back at least to the 1980s on this point.
        
               | berkle4455 wrote:
               | The aforementioned tools do nothing whatsoever to grant
               | to access accounts which aren't theirs.
        
               | spzb wrote:
               | I know. That's not what I said.
        
               | [deleted]
        
         | conradev wrote:
         | Releasing code to use undocumented APIs is speech, and is
         | regulated as such
         | 
         | You have to run the code to violate the terms of use, which is
         | primarily used to bar you from the service for misusing it.
        
           | glitchc wrote:
           | If the code in any way includes private API keys, or
           | circumvents protections on another entity's private API keys,
           | then this is intellectual theft and punishable by the law.
           | I'm willing to bet that without those private keys, the repo
           | is worthless.
        
             | llamataboot wrote:
             | it doesn't contain private keys, arguably it contains
             | irresponsible disclosures of various ways some large API
             | users can predictably get their keys hijacked
        
           | [deleted]
        
           | j-krieger wrote:
           | Time and time again.
           | 
           | You are protected in your speech _from the government_.
           | Commercial law does and will still apply. Arbitrary company
           | decisions happen all the time, and GitHub makes it clear that
           | they won't refrain from deleting repos for whatever reason.
        
             | dragonwriter wrote:
             | > You are protected in your speech from the government.
             | Commercial law
             | 
             | ...is the government.
        
             | kennywinker wrote:
             | Not sure if that distinction applies here. I understand
             | that the 1st amendment doesn't protect you from a company
             | refusing to publish what you've said - that makes sense.
             | But this is a case of a company attempting to use
             | commercial law (created by the government) to cause someone
             | else to stop their speech. That seems like a simple
             | violation of the "Congress shall make no law respecting an
             | establishment of religion, or prohibiting the free exercise
             | thereof; or abridging the freedom of speech"
             | 
             | But idk because i'm not a lawyer and we have copyright and
             | ip laws so clearly congress can pass SOME laws that
             | prohibit speech. Free speech absolutism is weird to me
        
               | bee_rider wrote:
               | In this case, it is really GitHub's company policy which
               | is being applied, right? They aren't required to host
               | anything in general, and they have a policy of taking
               | down repos based on their interpretation of the DMCA, or
               | some similar law (which might be a misinterpretation).
        
             | [deleted]
        
             | vorpalhex wrote:
             | Well that's not correct.
             | 
             | You are actually very protected in documenting security
             | flaws, and even republishing them.
             | 
             | I am unsure of who you think enforces laws... as far as I
             | know OpenAI doesn't have their own police force yet.
             | 
             | They can sue you of course, but they generally can't demand
             | compliance with takedowns in this case without first going
             | to a judge and requesting a court order.
             | 
             | There is no "commercial law" unless you mean UCC.. which
             | doesn't apply here.
        
               | spzb wrote:
               | I'm not a lawyer or even an American but that certainly
               | isn't how the DMCA works. The takedown is issued against
               | the hosting company and, if they comply, they have no
               | further liability. If they don't comply, they are liable
               | in court so, of course, they all comply.
        
               | vorpalhex wrote:
               | What does DMCA stand for?
               | 
               | Hint, that C letter is important!
        
               | spzb wrote:
               | In your mind, maybe. In the real world, the actual words
               | of the statute are important.
        
               | wtallis wrote:
               | There's a difference between being compelled by a court
               | order to take down a repo and choosing to comply with a
               | DMCA takedown notice of dubious validity because you
               | don't want to waste any more time on the issue and are
               | happy to screw your users.
        
               | spzb wrote:
               | There's also a difference between how you'd like the
               | world to be and the way the world actually is.
        
               | sn_master wrote:
               | Still, there's nothing illegal about GitHub deleting your
               | repo for any reason they choose as long as they're a
               | private entity not owned by the government.
        
             | bee_rider wrote:
             | Any law is ultimately enforced by the government. There
             | isn't a different type of law to which the constitution
             | doesn't apply (I mean it doesn't say a ton about limiting
             | various types of laws--laws around contracts, state law,
             | etc etc--but it still applies, it just doesn't say much).
             | 
             | However, this seems more like an issue of corporate policy
             | than law.
             | 
             | Github needs to have some policy that ends up with them
             | taking down repos that actually host illegal content, they
             | don't have any legal obligation to host files, so they can
             | respond to takedown notices by just taking down the files.
             | This wouldn't be the government forcing them to take down
             | files, it would be them deciding not to try and parse the
             | law very closely. But this is different from having an area
             | of law where the constitution doesn't apply, and it bears
             | repeating, because the constitution is really important and
             | the idea that there should be some sort of cutout where it
             | doesn't apply is bad for society.
             | 
             | Something we should grapple with as a society is whether
             | poorly written, ambiguous laws should be interpreted as the
             | government taking action by essentially forcing companies
             | into be over zealous in their corporate policy.
        
               | j-krieger wrote:
               | > Any law is ultimately enforced by the government
               | 
               | So? That's not what the first amendment applies to. You
               | do not have first amendment rights in civil cases. This
               | is not "an idea". It's just how it is. See libel.
        
               | dragonwriter wrote:
               | > > Any law is ultimately enforced by the government
               | 
               | > So? That's not what the first amendment applies to.
               | 
               | Yes it is.
               | 
               | > You do not have first amendment rights in civil cases.
               | 
               | Yes, you do; that's why US defamation law is more limited
               | than the common law it derives from, and where Fair Use
               | as a judicial application of the First Amendment came
               | from before it was codified in statute.
               | 
               | > See libel.
               | 
               | Libel is a perfect example of how you _do_ have First
               | Amendment rights in civil cases. Here 's a long list of
               | cases applying the First Amendment in the
               | libel/defamation context:
               | 
               | https://www.mtsu.edu/first-
               | amendment/encyclopedia/case/63/li...
        
             | llamataboot wrote:
             | I think an interesting legal case could be made about
             | publishing the code as a web page somewhere that could play
             | around with the speech/action distinction - but I certainly
             | don't think Microsoft is going to host ways for people to
             | backdoor OpenAI under any circumstances - honestly I'm
             | surprised it took an actual DMCA notice
        
             | seattle_spring wrote:
             | First amendment! Censorship! 2nd amendment for some reason!
             | 
             | Yeah in all seriousness people trot out perceived
             | constitutional infringements about 500x times more than it
             | actually happens.
        
               | engineer_22 wrote:
               | Your rights are your rights, don't give them up.
        
               | seattle_spring wrote:
               | Totally. It's just that not every restriction in the
               | world is an infringement on your rights.
        
               | smcleod wrote:
               | Also they assume the entire world lives in America.
        
               | vorpalhex wrote:
               | In this case both OpenAI and Microsoft are US companies,
               | so US law applies.
        
             | user3939382 wrote:
             | > You are protected in your speech from the government
             | 
             | In theory. In practice we see in the Twitter files, the new
             | rule is that government agencies are free to send takedown
             | requests to social media platforms for speech that
             | disagrees with our (abhorrent) foreign policy.
        
               | krapp wrote:
               | >In practice we see in the Twitter files, the new rule is
               | that government agencies are free to send takedown
               | requests to social media platforms for speech that
               | disagrees with our (abhorrent) foreign policy.
               | 
               | Where in the Twitter files did it show that social media
               | platforms would be punished with jail time or violence or
               | anything if they refused to obey the government's orders?
               | 
               | Because unless you can demonstrate the government was
               | putting a gun to Twitter's head and would not take no for
               | an answer, that isn't a "new rule" it's literally just
               | the government making a request. Which they and anyone
               | else is and has always been allowed to do. And which
               | social media platforms _have sometimes refused without
               | reprisal._ I mean, I see speech that disagrees with
               | American foreign policy all the time on social media. No
               | one 's being sent to the camps for it. It doesn't even
               | get censored.
        
           | px43 wrote:
           | This is why Microsoft's takeover of Github (and OpenAI for
           | that matter) is so tragic. They weren't required to take this
           | down. It got taken down because Microsoft didn't like it.
           | Microsoft now has their hooks in the open source community
           | and can crush any project who does something they don't like.
        
             | ChatGTP wrote:
             | Yup this is just code, the people running the code might be
             | at fault but the code is an example.
        
       | nbardy wrote:
       | Touche, that poem is a show stopper
        
       | TheObviousOne wrote:
       | Let's arrange a donation for the creator of this Repo.
       | 
       | This is gold and crucial for democratization of AI tools.
        
         | dcow wrote:
         | No it abuses security vulnerabilities in 3rd party businesses
         | who are using OpenAI. It doesn't get you access to OpenAI's api
         | at _OpenAI 's_ expense. It gets you access at [vulnerable 3rd
         | party]'s expense. Bankrupting someone using OpenAI doesn't seem
         | to achieve much in the way of democratization of AI tools,
         | sorry.
        
           | TheObviousOne wrote:
           | it's not bankrupting them, as the author is highly ethic (by
           | using only "Big companies" open apis and remove the small one
           | and the ones that ask from him to be removed).
           | 
           | But as for your comment, i see it rather as opportunity to
           | make it only with Opt-in by the companies themselves. That
           | way it will actually make it even win-win situation for them
           | for Marketing and Ads (with lower price).
        
             | chrsjxn wrote:
             | Only stealing from people who haven't asked you nicely to
             | stop doesn't scream "highly ethical" to me
             | 
             | Security researchers put a lot of emphasis on responsibly
             | disclosing vulnerabilities. The maintainers of this project
             | could have easily done the same, but they didn't
        
             | dcow wrote:
             | Of course! If this was opt-in then the only problem would
             | be between OpenAI and the service providers to decide
             | whether that's an allowable user of OpenAI's apis based on
             | the terms of service and whatnot.
        
       | heres_a_bundle wrote:
       | Here's a mirror in case it gets taken down:
       | https://web.archive.org/web/20230428163410/https://litter.ca...
       | 
       | To clone from this:                   wget https://web.archive.or
       | g/web/20230428163410embed_/https://litter.catbox.moe/gc4o73.bundl
       | e         git clone gc4o73.bundle gpt4free
        
       ___________________________________________________________________
       (page generated 2023-04-28 23:02 UTC)