Pandora's box has already been opened and there is no going back. I doubt OpenAI, et al will get anything but a slap on the wrist in court because punishing AI companies would have a negative effect on the US economy.

>Can the same be said about DeepSeek or any other open-source model provider performing distillation?

Open source models that distill from SoTA reminds me of the story of Robin Hood -- robbing the rich and giving it to the poor. So to answer your question: yes, but it's better than the alternative where only a select few companies have SoTA models.

Robin Hood, famous for spinning his acts into a $220M ARR SaaS business (as of mid 2025 [0], likely >$1B by now) and using charity as a marketing mechanism.

[0] https://sqmagazine.co.uk/deepseek-ai-statistics/