Sure they can, search engines produce copyrighted material all the time. The issue comes in when people think this somehow indemnifies them as users of Copilot

Sure they can, search engines produce copyrighted material all the time. The issue comes in when people think this somehow indemnifies them as users of Copilot - my guess is, it doesn't protect you any more than if you use a search engine to copy an entire codebase for your own purposes.