Saying 2 works are identical because the bytes are identical is the mathematical definition of identical. It's the very first axiom, generally referred to as the "reflexive property". "x=x". It says that, for mathematical purposes, a 3 made of concrete and a 3 made of candy are the same thing, because it doesn't differ in essential properties. In every mathematical equation you can always say that both x's are obviously different: they don't have the same position of the page! So this axiom really is needed and really does mean something.

But the point is: courts are absolutely famous for ignoring mathematical reality. Like in this case. The whole purpose of the entire field of ML is "universal approximation", which can be very accurately described as making 2 functions the same, using backprop with transformers being one way to do that. The whole point of making something like ChatGPT or Claude is that the outputs would NOT be different from the output of these programmers. And the judge ignored the entire field to make this judgement. The judge ignored one meaning of identical in favor of another, and what do you know, it just happens to be the one to give all the money to billionaires.

As you point out, obviously the judge will do the exact opposite reasoning to protect billionaires as well. They will protect Disney against these programmers making AI versions of Disney movies, based on their real movies, either through identity transformation (there is, of course, no "equality test", because even a dvdrip and a dvd aren't the same, not even when decoded the pixels don't match). We both know this to be true 99.999%. Hence "excuse". Exactness doesn't matter. And if I make 50 AI slop versions (all of which are different) of all movies in existence, and create a Netflix showing them, we all know that the judge will judge against me in the first 5 minutes to protect huge companies' revenues.

The only question that remains is what happens when the inevitable comes, and an AI company billionaire produces an obvious duplicate of a movie [2], and we see a billionaire vs billionaire case. Given that it's Elon Musk that might get sued and what he's done, I'm guessing it'll depend on which party gets elected.

But I repeat my question: how do I get the courts to make philosophically defensible choices where I get the money? Clearly the judge decided that this mathematically identical output of these programmers does not mean they hold copyright. And as you agree, an AI changed disney movie the judge will make the opposite judgement to protect Disney's billions. Well, how do I get the judge to take the exact same position on Disney movies, to throw Disney under the bus and protect me and give me money instead? I'll make the Netflix everyone wants with it. So how do I get the judge to have my back instead of some billionaire's back? Both viewpoints are obviously both valid, or at least philosophically defensible. How do I get the judge to pick the side where I get the money and not some billionaire.

[1] https://www.france24.com/en/live-news/20251111-german-court-...

[2] https://variety.com/2026/film/news/elon-musks-grok-ai-genera...