I think you have done a good job arguing the facts but you missed intent and context, which I believe are vital to differentiating between AI copyright theft and meme copyright theft.
For one thing, companies aren’t replacing living artists with memes - but they do intend to replace people with AI. When thousands of hard working people have dedicated their lives to developing a skill and craft, it’s atrocious that someone can just steal their work with the excuse that “AI needs it”.
Memes are likely to fall under “fair sure” given they are purely created to get a giggle out of someone, not to create financial gain. Sure there are some very popular meme sites and they should be held to account for the money they earn publishing copyrighted works that memes are made from…
Personally I would be fine with LLM AI if the underlying dataset is properly authorised and paid for. It’s disgusting that the largest companies on Earth are now hammering the world wide web hoping to feed their personal Galactuses with enough data to create some shitty new product. As if the corporate and business communities parasitic relationship with the open source world leading up to AI wasn’t bad enough!
Australian here. It’s hard to say how anyone feels because the media and major social media have been astro turfed so hard. But it’s plain to see to everyone that neither side of politics down under is interested in changing the status quo.
I get the sense people are disillusioned and seeing through all the smoke and mirrors from all sides of politics, but it’s just leading to cynicism and disengagement rather than alternative options.
I have been wondering if maybe the path to a Star Trek future lies in peacefully tolerating and co-operating with these “authorities” as they fade into irrelevance. We can build new systems of governance peacefully, slowly and meaningfully.