Retroactive Permission Is Still Just Taking

Somewhere in a server farm, a machine has learned to feel a little bit lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky, lucky. It was never asked, and it never paid.

Australia's music industry body says Kylie Minogue's catalogue has already been used to train AI systems, while major tech firms lobby governments worldwide to loosen copyright protections. Of the dozens of countries reportedly approached, Australia appears to be the only one seriously entertaining the idea. Publishers describe the pressure as strong-arming, a word that tends to appear after the arm has already been twisted.

The industry's argument is that the songs have already been taken, which makes changing the law less a negotiation than a request to pretend the past didn't happen.

If the only way to make something legal is to wait until it has already been done, was it ever a rule or just a delay?