For context: Cara is an artists social platform that gained traction after Instagram made you agree to let them use your pictures for whatever purpose (train AI most likely). The platform has a firm stance against the use of generative AI and even has Glaze built in (a tool to poison pictures for when they’re fed to AI).
Only recently I saw a post here on Lemmy about someone scraping all of Cara and posting about it (https://lemmy.world/post/50643500). Apparently it’s been already three times.
These people really have no shame. Fuck them.
Jingna Zhang is now collecting funds to support Cara in taking legal action. Here is the official post:
https://blog.cara.app/blog/cara-needs-your-help
Cara needs your help. We have been scraped a third time. This is now a targeted attack meant to cause artists pain.
Scrapers know we’re a volunteer project with no financial means to respond. So they say it’s legal, believing themselves untouchable.
We’re taking action.
I believe artists who want to share their work with the world should get to do so without people violating their consent. We won’t be forced into making Cara members-only because some people think “consent isn’t always valid”. You don’t blame victims after harming them.
These scrapers feel safe because they know we’re small team of volunteers, that we have no way of affording help.
So I’m asking our community, will you come together? Please help us take legal action.
Other platforms may not care because artists are easy targets to bully. No one really stands with us.
But I care because it is my home, our home. I won’t let them trample over the hearts of everyone. Our team may be small, but we want to defend Cara.
I have a lot on my plate and my body is falling apart from all I’ve taken on these past years. But I always think, when we’re alive, we should do what’s right.
People who think they can harm others because it’s “legal” shouldn’t get away with it. I refuse to give up.
I don’t want this to become encouragement for open season on artists just because we seem powerless.
So I want to take legal action and find out just what we can or cannot do. I want to know what I need to do next, to make this twisted world change. To hold people accountable.
If you can, please consider donating whether it’s $1, $10, or $50 to our legal fund. This will help us seek counsel for legal options for both Cara and its artists, and in carrying out necessary legal actions.
Please help us stop scrapers from targeting artists.
https://gofundme.com/f/help-cara-legal-fund
Jingna Zhang
Founder, Cara
The Chinesd company that feeds everything into AI while claming to be Anti-AI can go fuck itself: https://lemmy.world/comment/25295278
Also ever tried to sue a Russian/Chinese that stole your intellectual property? Good luck.
Also again: This company obviously doesn’t know how the Internet works. Your content is publicly on the Internet, you can’t completely stop people, bots or whatever from accessing it. That’s the way the web is designed and always was. Deal with it.
Just because one of the founders has Chinese roots doesn‘t mean it‘s a Chinese company. In fact Cara is based in the US and falls under Californian jurisdiction.
Also in their FAQ it says:
Ah yes, the American Liberal, here to lecture us on the bad that CHINA does, when we do FAR worse every hour of every day - including AI scraping!
Damn those Chinese and their untrustworthy tech bros with their ill intentions towards our intellectual property! America would never! I mean we have so much more honor here! And if we don’t, it’s their fault! And if it isn’t then it should be! And they should deserve it!
Right?