Bonum Certa Men Certa

More Copyright Lawsuits Against LLM Slop Providers and Suppliers of LLM Slopfarms Would Benefit Society

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Apr 26, 2025,
updated Apr 26, 2025

It's not just bad for the Web and for society; it's also legally dangerous

News available on or across the Web has become "slow" or "scarce", even more so for those who value originality or substance or quality or importance et cetera*. Finding some random domains with text in them, even via Google News (where pedigree matters no more), does not guarantee finding news. Many are slopfarms and we do our best to shun them**. We'd be worse off if we even linked to them. Those sites need to go offline.

Slopfarms themselves (in their own right) are really bad, but one lesser-discussed impact of them is that they lessen the incentive for real sites (that they usually rip off) to carry on. LLMs rip them off, displace them in search results, and even flood them whenever they feel like it (like DDoS attacks with parasitic requests at short intervals). Sometimes the originals die and the copycats or parasites persist. At each iteration we lose more and more accurate information.

Slopfarms are not possible to make (or 'build' if they're even worthy of such a term) without suppliers or "SLOP SERVICES". So we hope that LLM scrapers and slop services will go under. It's not like they make any money or have prospects of ever making money. It is a giant bubble. "Open" "hey hi" (AI, except it's not) projects or foresees a debt of about 30 billion in a few years. It's basically insolvent on paper, if not for the hype (like expressing interesting in taking over "Chrome" even if it lacks the money or approval - judges would not approve passing Chrome to a Microsoft proxy; it's all about interjecting oneself into headlines and thereby seem very rich, even if you're - or your company is - very poor, even indebted).

"Open" "hey hi" is basically good at lying and manipulating (or bribing) the media into repeating its lies [1, 2], marketing stunts etc. Storytelling is OK, but fact-checking is still imperative.

"Open" "hey hi" rejects the very notion of fact-checking. Such a concept is antithetical to its very existence. It helps people bypass actual facts, compensating for the lies with nice grammar and smooth-talking paragraphs.

"Open" "hey hi" has just been sued again, since "intentionally and relentlessly [it] reproduced exact copies and created derivatives of Ziff Davis works", says India Times (a publisher that itself turned to slop [1, 2]). "Recent court decisions, such as a federal judge denying music publishers’ requests to block Anthropic from using copyrighted lyrics, highlight the unsettled nature of this legal frontier, says Digital Music News about the same lawsuit and Press Gazette, an apologist of slop [1, 2, 3], has just said that "Ziff Davis sues". We hope they'll win. All this LLM slop frenzy is driven by a cult looking to exploit lousy reasons for "smart" or "state-of-the-art" plagiarism. It's not just the plagiarism that's bad; it's also full of errors and it ruins decades if not centuries of intellectual endeavours.

Take Linux for instance. Let's consider the very latest examples that we can see online. Starting with this:

Securing Virtualized Linux Environments with MITRE

Is it slop? Yes, as usual:

Let's examine how applying this guidance equips us to counter emerging threats efficiently, protecting both Linux systems and the virtualization layers that businesses rely on.

Just bland, generic headlines followed by LLM 'spew' from chatbots:

Securing the Software Supply Chain with In-Toto

And checking for slop again:

Let's examine how adopting in-toto can help you proactively mitigate risks, build resilience into your infrastructure, and improve trust in your organization.

Here's the same site with slop about "Curing":

Curing Linux Rootkit Bypasses Security Monitoring

Of course it is fake:

Let's take a closer look at this stealthy Linux rootkit, how it operates, the challenges in detecting its activity, and how you can strengthen your defenses against this emerging threat.

The above are from one domain and only a couple of days.

As a reminder, Bruce Schneier cited LLM slop (as caught here; rebuttal to a Serial Slopper's slop), focusing not on actual back doors in Windows but something "Linux" and "Curing".

Real articles about "Curing":

The above articles are obscured if not superseded (in the visibility sense) by LLM slop full of errors and therefore they may then - in due course - get cited by security professionals who don't know better what sites are slopfarms (imagine references that are just bot chaff - that's nearly as bad as imaginary ones). They may think of slight errors as innocent inaccuracies rather than LLM 'hallucinations' (lies, fabrications).

The LLM cult is staining science and facts.

____________

* By 1:30pm I've finished all links for today, which is unusual, but nowadays articles that matter are hard to find. They either take ages to find or one will just give up a lot sooner and exhaust sources.

** In Git we keep a list of blacklisted spam domains.

Other Recent Techrights' Posts

Our Priority is Still Tackling Software Patents and Corruption in Patent Offices
Meanwhile we got compliments on our recent articles, which means that they are effective
Slopwatch: Another Day, Another Slopfest, LLM Slop Scrapers Slow Down Our Site
We too have some slop issues; this past day this site and the sister site had to answer about 2.5 million requests (not counting Gemini Protocol) and it's slowing things down for everybody
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part IX: Minimum Wages For You (Experienced Scientist), Alicante/EU Paydays For Me (Unproductive, Corrupt Official)
Does UPRP maladministration extend to the false belief that qualified and experienced scientists can play the role of circus clowns?
 
It's Possible That BetaNews Got Cracked, But Nobody Talks About It, The Site Contains an Outdated Old Image, No Activity
It's possible that they will never explain what happened to the site and users' accounts
Links 12/06/2025: Beach Boys’ Brian Wilson Dies
Links for the day
Gemini Links 12/06/2025: Video Game Diegesis and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
"The Liberating Power of Simply Telling People the Truth."
'polite' bullying
Why the Militants Have Lost Every Battle Since 2022 (When Attacking My Wife and I in Various Ways, Even Attacking Our Employers)
This takes patience, sure, but at the end most evildoers face the consequences for their actions
Politics Will Impact Software Choices
Will those systems respect users' freedom?
EPO: Neglecting Children to Promote American Monopolies by Shielding Them From European Competition
Yesterday the Central Staff Committee at the EPO spoke about another "reform" at the Office
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Wednesday, June 11, 2025
IRC logs for Wednesday, June 11, 2025
Links 11/06/2025: More Vulnerabilities Found in 'Smart' Phones, China Extends Reach in the Pacific
Links for the day
Gemini Links 11/06/2025: Grain and Steam Next Fest
Links for the day
Links 11/06/2025: "Quantum" Hype From IBM, US Closer to Martial Law, and “The Nation” Celebrates Milestone
Links for the day
IBM's CEO Roasted, Sizzled and Grilled for Dumb and Inconsistent Vapourware Promises
It looks like being a chronic liar is what it takes to lead the company once synonymous with computing
IBM's Goal Is Not (and Never Was) Computer Users' Freedom
More than 1.5 decades ago I found IBM to be an "ally of convenience" because of OpenDocument Format (ODF)
Wayland Shows the IBM/Red Hat Way of Doing Things
IBM is trying to 'kill' X
Who Imitates Who? Plagiarist as Client (From Microsoft), 'Plagiarism' at the Law Firm?
let's revisit the subject
GitHub is Proprietary, Controlled by Microsoft, and GPL Violation Warehouse
"IRS tax filing software [will be] released to the people as free software" ... In general this is good news
Slopfarm Catastrophe
Seems like BetaNews (or BetaNoise) has just suffered a major data loss and restored the site from a week-old backup
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VIII: Illegal Working Conditions
How many people need to die for these people to get their massive salaries?
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Tuesday, June 10, 2025
IRC logs for Tuesday, June 10, 2025
Links 10/06/2025: Apple Hype and Physical Attacks on Bloggers
Links for the day
Gemini Links 10/06/2025: Loon Lake, Farming, and Forth
Links for the day
Links 10/06/2025: Jaws at 50 and US Democracy Crushed Very Rapidly (Martial Law Seems Imminent)
Links for the day
Abuse Inside the Polish Patent Office (UPRP) - Part VII: Washing Their Hands After Corruption and Abuse
"Tragedy or comedy?"
Culling Bad RSS Feeds of Bad Sites
Not throwing out the baby with the bathwater
If 'Microsoft v Techrights' is Dealt With by a 'Microsoft Court' (or a Court Outsourced to Microsoft)
More on that later
Over at Tux Machines...
GNU/Linux news for the past day
IRC Proceedings: Monday, June 09, 2025
IRC logs for Monday, June 09, 2025
Gemini Protocol Turns Six in 10 Days From Now
If you haven't tried it yet, then give it a go today
Live as You Preach
technology is fast becoming dysphoric