Language models may memorize more than just facts, including entire chunks of
texts seen during training. Fair use exemptions to copyright laws typically
allow for limited use of copyrighted material without permission from the
copyright holder, but typically for extraction of information from copyrighted
materials, rather than {\em verbatim} reproduction. This work explores the
issue of copyright violations and large language models through the lens of
verbatim memorization, focusing on possible redistribution of copyrighted text.
We present experiments with a range of language models over a collection of
popular books and coding problems, providing a conservative characterization of
the extent to which language models can redistribute these materials. Overall,
this research highlights the need for further examination and the potential
impact on future developments in natural language processing to ensure
adherence to copyright regulations. Code is at
https://github.com/coastalcph/CopyrightLLMs.

本研究通过对语言模型的逐字记忆进行探索，重点关注版权文字的再分发可能性，通过对一系列热门图书和编码问题进行实验，提供了个人估计的语言模型再分发这些材料的程度。总体而言，本研究强调了进一步研究的必要性，以及对版权法规遵守的潜在影响和未来自然语言处理发展的潜在影响。