However, there is a more straightforward solution. The allows general use inside a company. The license blocks the "Model-as-a-Service".
So instead, any GPU holder can provide a 'Infrastructure-as-a-service' and have clients provide the model, and then tell the clients that as an optimization they can also provide just the hash and they'll load it from their memory.
I think its good that this license pushes the ecosystem towards such a generic-utility framework, but as a moat to protect a business its banking on most companies being lazy and wasteful.
That pays off more than people like to admit.
Unless considerable amount of lobbying reverses it in a new directive/regulation, that's the case on model outputs - Originally I learnt of it from briefing prepared by lawyers regarding EU laws on AI.
But this all says nothing about the original question, about whether the weights can be copyrighted.
We got guidance that:
a) weights should be considered to be public domain due to "blender" aspect of training on otherwise copyrighted data (similar argument as to why stable diffusion weights can't be infringing - because any specific copyrighted work provides less impact on process than RNG)
b) model outputs should be considered public domain as far as "work done by model" counts - prompts/inputs done by human are copyrightable.
However, model output can infringe - essentially same framework as if you used a ton of Disney stuff in a drawing you made by yourself - since the drawing would remain what it is without the copyrighted information, it is infringing even if you did it from memory.
Similarly any human-made addition to model output are copyrightable, but to make an useful distinction there would need to be some significant work. So let's say you made an image that incorporated model outputs for parts of it - going back to "prompts" it also counts if you made a sketch/wireframe/etc. and then used a model to "fill in" or postprocess it.
This makes sense, I believe it will eventually become the clear case in the US as well. However, it does leave open the case where a human carefully crafts a series of prompts to produce an creative work that qualifies for copyright.
Further, this does not appear to be binding on courts within the EU?