Aside from copyright, this raises anti-trust issues.
Courts generally uphold provisions against reverse-engineering (as protecting internal, proprietary knowledge) but are more welcoming to copying interfaces (as encouraging market substitutes). So one question would be whether OpenAI can restrict use of the output of their tool in this manner, since the output itself is manifestly open (to the customer). That seems novel. The only analogy I know of is database licensing that prevents customers from publishing comparisons, which seems anti-competitive.
Anti-trust policy is motivated mainly in mature markets, where one player has fairly (by hypothesis) grown to dominate. The law and courts apply special scrutiny to identify ordinarily-acceptable market practices that extend the market power of the dominant player.
But is it the same analysis in a growing market? It seems like even if OpenAI (or especially, OpenAI+Microsoft) is dominant, if the market is growing quickly, the concern might be relaxed since the dominance is uncertain. Conversely, if the market is particularly susceptible to capture, early leaders might warrant heightened scrutiny.
But aside from monopoly's first-order effect on reducing competition, the second-order effect is to reduce investments in competitors, which has anti-competitive effects. That concern could be highest in the early stages of a market.
Are there any good lawyer blogs on point?
Courts generally uphold provisions against reverse-engineering (as protecting internal, proprietary knowledge) but are more welcoming to copying interfaces (as encouraging market substitutes). So one question would be whether OpenAI can restrict use of the output of their tool in this manner, since the output itself is manifestly open (to the customer). That seems novel. The only analogy I know of is database licensing that prevents customers from publishing comparisons, which seems anti-competitive.
Anti-trust policy is motivated mainly in mature markets, where one player has fairly (by hypothesis) grown to dominate. The law and courts apply special scrutiny to identify ordinarily-acceptable market practices that extend the market power of the dominant player.
But is it the same analysis in a growing market? It seems like even if OpenAI (or especially, OpenAI+Microsoft) is dominant, if the market is growing quickly, the concern might be relaxed since the dominance is uncertain. Conversely, if the market is particularly susceptible to capture, early leaders might warrant heightened scrutiny.
But aside from monopoly's first-order effect on reducing competition, the second-order effect is to reduce investments in competitors, which has anti-competitive effects. That concern could be highest in the early stages of a market.
Are there any good lawyer blogs on point?