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I think copilot is pretty clearly copyright violation and in violation of licenses of "public" code. People uploading code to github are bound to the licenses

I think copilot is pretty clearly copyright violation and in violation of licenses of "public" code. People uploading code to github are bound to the licenses just the same as anyone, unless you're the legitimate owner of all of the copyright in a codebase, you can't give change the license provisions by accepting a ToS. I don't think it's really that murky, these models contain and have been shown to reproduce copyrighted code with the right prompting, it's not a grey area it's just obfuscated theft.

jazzyjackson 4y ago
what's the difference between allowing you to search github and find a code snippet, and having a fancy autocomplete system search github and find a code snippet for you? seems to me anyone agreeing to the ToS should expect their code to show up on other peoples screens as search results really the question is a matter of degree, is copying your nested for-loop iterating through a row oriented matrix really a unique piece of code protected by copyright? Or does the copyright apply to the file you've written as a whole, leaving room for me to accidentally use words in the same order? clearly there is a tipping point between writing code that looks like yours and using the code you've written outside the terms of your license, we will have to wait for courts to decide where that line is for all ML, not just co-pilot also copying is not theft
- colechristensen 4y ago
  When I look at github code, it's only stored in my brain and personal notes, not packaged into a product as a trained ML model. When I reproduce code based on something I looked up, I do indeed have to be careful not to explicitly copy sizable chunks, somethings are obvious and the only way to do things, but not everything. What users and copyright holders expect from humans does not automatically apply to marginally similar situations with computers and ML applications. For example: if I'm walking down the street I don't mind at all if someone recognizes me or a stranger remembers seeing me later, I'm actually rather bothered if someone (or the state) is running facial recognition software and recording every time it see me or anyone else walking down the street.

jazzyjackson 4y ago

what's the difference between allowing you to search github and find a code snippet, and having a fancy autocomplete system search github and find a code snippet for you? seems to me anyone agreeing to the ToS should expect their code to show up on other peoples screens as search results really the question is a matter of degree, is copying your nested for-loop iterating through a row oriented matrix really a unique piece of code protected by copyright? Or does the copyright apply to the file you've written as a whole, leaving room for me to accidentally use words in the same order? clearly there is a tipping point between writing code that looks like yours and using the code you've written outside the terms of your license, we will have to wait for courts to decide where that line is for all ML, not just co-pilot also copying is not theft

colechristensen 4y ago
When I look at github code, it's only stored in my brain and personal notes, not packaged into a product as a trained ML model. When I reproduce code based on something I looked up, I do indeed have to be careful not to explicitly copy sizable chunks, somethings are obvious and the only way to do things, but not everything. What users and copyright holders expect from humans does not automatically apply to marginally similar situations with computers and ML applications. For example: if I'm walking down the street I don't mind at all if someone recognizes me or a stranger remembers seeing me later, I'm actually rather bothered if someone (or the state) is running facial recognition software and recording every time it see me or anyone else walking down the street.