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- Idea Of The Day - Build a tool to catch AI stealing copyrighted stuff — sue, settle, and cash in.
Idea Of The Day - Build a tool to catch AI stealing copyrighted stuff — sue, settle, and cash in.
Needs To Exist
May 02, 2025
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GM. This is Needs to Exist (aka NTE), bringing you a startup idea to profit from AI’s legal blind spots.
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Here’s what we’ve got for you today.
Daily Idea - Sue. Settle. Scale.
Follow the Taboo
Sue AI. Settle. Get Paid.
Inspired by the MFM Podcast
The One Liner
Sue robots for stealing. Make money doing it.
The 140 character tweet (or X) version
AI is remixing copyrighted stuff without permission. Creators are pissed. This firm helps them sue—and settle—fast. It’s the ADA scam 2.0.
The Longer Story Version
The Problem
AI eats everything—and sometimes that includes your IP.
Today’s AI tools don’t “steal” in the traditional sense, but they regurgitate copyrighted characters, styles, and creations like a remix DJ who never asked for rights. Ask for “two Italian plumber brothers,” and boom—Mario and Luigi show up.
Creators, artists, and studios are left with no credit, no compensation, and no legal roadmap.
Meanwhile, AI companies are skating on legal gray ice. Everyone’s waiting for someone else to draw the lines. That’s your opportunity.
Just like those law firms that got rich filing cookie-cutter ADA lawsuits against ecomm sites... this is the same playbook, but with hotter headlines and bigger defendants.
The Solution
Start a boutique firm (or legal-tech tool) built to target AI copyright infringement.
Here’s the model:
Ingest the AI slop: Monitor top AI content platforms for outputs that resemble copyrighted material
Flag & match: Use something like Hive Moderation to scan outputs for brand likeness and IP matches.
Build the claim: When matches are found, auto-generate a legal demand letter using GPT + templates + actual case law (prompt: “Write a cease and desist letter with case references about unauthorized character reproduction by generative AI.”)
Settle fast: Most of these AI firms don’t want smoke. Offer quiet settlements. Rinse. Repeat.
You don’t even need to be a big-time litigator to make this work. You just need volume, templates, and the ability to make noise when needed.
How We’d Build It
📚 IP Scan Stack:
🧠 Legal Ops Tools:
Casetext CoCounsel to help research case law
Harvey AI for deeper legal reasoning and drafting
Ironclad if you expand into compliance tools for AI firms
🎯 Outbound Engine:
Create a “Wall of Shame” of egregious AI IP theft examples.
Run paid + press. Let outrage fuel inbound.
Bonus: Offer white-glove audits to big media firms as a wedge into retainer biz.
Why It Needs to Exist
Because every creator is tired of seeing AI spit out their life's work without so much as a nod.
And AI companies? They're scared. They know they're one angry mouse-click away from a six-figure settlement.
This firm makes creators whole—and keeps AI companies honest.
You're not just enforcing copyright. You're building the guardrails for a trillion-dollar industry.
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Startups no one builds because they’re too controversial (but wildly profitable)
Some startup ideas don’t get built because they’re bad.
But others don’t get built because they’re taboo.
Too risky. Too controversial. Too many dinner-party eyebrows raised.
And that’s exactly why they’re wide open.
Think about it: whenever a space is seen as “icky” or “complicated” or “too legally messy,” smart founders run the other way. That creates a vacuum. A wide, juicy gap. And in that gap? Profit.
Let’s flip the mindset.
Instead of running from the controversy, lean into it. If it makes you slightly uncomfortable but clearly solves a pain point, you might be on to something.
Here’s how to train your brain to spot these unbuilt-but-valuable ideas:
🚧 1. Hunt for Legal Gray Zones
Where regulation lags behind innovation, opportunity explodes.
Ride-sharing. Crypto. Short-term rentals. They all started in legal gray zones. Nobody knew if they were “allowed,” which made them hard to copy early on.
Use:
🧨 2. Look Where There’s Backlash
When headlines scream “Ban This!”, there’s often a business quietly booming behind the scenes.
Taboo = attention. Attention = leverage.
Examples:
Supplements that influencers won’t touch but consumers buy anyway
Platforms for creators too spicy for YouTube
Products solving real problems in industries the mainstream ignores (think OnlyFans for... accountants?)
Use:
Exploding Topics + Subreddit Stats to sniff out trend tension
Track Twitter/X dunk-fests—what’s everyone piling on? What would happen if you built the opposite?
🧠 3. Solve for the Underserved (But Not Undemanding)
Some niches feel “too small” or “too intense”—until you realize no one else is building for them.
Ex-cons rebuilding their financial lives
Niche religious communities with unique consumer needs
Activists, whistleblowers, adult creators—people with money and no software built for them
Use:
🤑 4. Trace the Settlements
Wherever companies are quietly paying to make problems go away, there’s often a productized service waiting to be born.
You don’t need to litigate—you need to understand the friction. That’s where businesses live.
Use:
CourtListener’s RECAP Archive to find repeat offenders
G2 + Trustpilot to spot systemic product failures you can clean up
Final Thought
The best ideas don’t always look pretty. In fact, the more “unsexy” or “messy” it feels, the more likely it’s untapped.
Remember: Airbnb sounded illegal. Uber sounded unsafe. Bitcoin sounded insane.
Now? They sound obvious.
So next time an idea makes you pause and think “Can I even do that?”, don’t dismiss it.
Double-click. Dig deeper. And maybe build it before someone else does.
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