3 ms·

> A developer uses Copilot for a commercial project and Copilot insert a complete function from a GPL v3 code into this project. Honest question: can a functio

by runeks 4y ago

> A developer uses Copilot for a commercial project and Copilot insert a complete function from a GPL v3 code into this project. Honest question: can a function have a license? Ie. can a function be copyrighted? If an MIT library and a GPL library use the same function with some minor variation and I use the function from the GPL code in my commercial project, have I infringed on someone’s copyright/license? Or would be argument be that the function in question is not copyrightable as almost the same version exists licensed under MIT?

blagie 4y ago
Honest answer: - Yes, functions are copyrighted. - Copyrights are not patents, and providence matters. If you and I independently both come up with the same text, we both have a right to use it. If it could be proven in a court of law that by a 10^(-100,000) chance, we both wrote an identical novel, we'd both have copyrights to our work. - Conversely, if you took my creative work, the fact that someone else came up with the same creative work isn't a defence - If the code you borrowed went MIT->GPL->your code, things get very ambiguous. The copyright holder is the original author if the GPL code made no changes. - For just one function, you might be able to get away with a fair use defence. There's a four-prong test, which is pretty fuzzy. You'd do well on some prongs ("the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole") and poorly on others ("the purpose and character of the use"). - For something like copilot inserting it, you do much better, since intent matters too.
tirpen 4y ago
> Ie. can a function be copyrighted? def print_harry_potter_book_1(): print("Chapter One") print("The boy who lived") print("Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were") print("proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank") print("you very much. they were the last people you’d expect to be in-") print("volved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t") print("hold with such nonsense.") print("Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which") print("made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, al-") print("though he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin") print("and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which") print("came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over") print("garden fences, spying on the neighbors. the Dursleys had a small") print("son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy") print("anywhere.") [...]

by runeks 4y ago

blagie 4y ago

Honest answer: - Yes, functions are copyrighted. - Copyrights are not patents, and providence matters. If you and I independently both come up with the same text, we both have a right to use it. If it could be proven in a court of law that by a 10^(-100,000) chance, we both wrote an identical novel, we'd both have copyrights to our work. - Conversely, if you took my creative work, the fact that someone else came up with the same creative work isn't a defence - If the code you borrowed went MIT->GPL->your code, things get very ambiguous. The copyright holder is the original author if the GPL code made no changes. - For just one function, you might be able to get away with a fair use defence. There's a four-prong test, which is pretty fuzzy. You'd do well on some prongs ("the amount and substantiality of the portion used in relation to the copyrighted work as a whole") and poorly on others ("the purpose and character of the use"). - For something like copilot inserting it, you do much better, since intent matters too.

tirpen 4y ago

> Ie. can a function be copyrighted? def print_harry_potter_book_1(): print("Chapter One") print("The boy who lived") print("Mr. and Mrs. Dursley, of number four, Privet Drive, were") print("proud to say that they were perfectly normal, thank") print("you very much. they were the last people you’d expect to be in-") print("volved in anything strange or mysterious, because they just didn’t") print("hold with such nonsense.") print("Mr. Dursley was the director of a firm called Grunnings, which") print("made drills. He was a big, beefy man with hardly any neck, al-") print("though he did have a very large mustache. Mrs. Dursley was thin") print("and blonde and had nearly twice the usual amount of neck, which") print("came in very useful as she spent so much of her time craning over") print("garden fences, spying on the neighbors. the Dursleys had a small") print("son called Dudley and in their opinion there was no finer boy") print("anywhere.") [...]