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The violations are when that code is incorporated into your own codebase, which is happening in none of those examples. If you copy GPL'd code from GH search wi
by rileyphone 4y ago
The violations are when that code is incorporated into your own codebase, which is happening in none of those examples. If you copy GPL'd code from GH search with a non-compatible license you are still in violation.
- Spivak 4y agoYes but that’s your problem as a user of the tool. It doesn’t make Copilot itself illegal which is what the person I originally replied to was saying. Yes if you use a tool to violate copyright it’s copyright infringement. If you prod Midjourney into outputting near exact Starry Night that’s on you too. So far no one has made a compelling case that Copilot itself is violating copyright.
- eloisius 4y agoCode search may show snippets, but it's clearly not separated from the rest of its code base, including the license. It may be your problem as a user of that tool if you pirate snippets out of the search results without honoring its license, but GitHub at least didn't distribute it without its license. A human judge would surely determine that a search result page showing a snippet and linking back to the project wouldn't constitute distributing the code without attribution. Copilot is a different matter. There is no way to know where the code came from, whether it's novel or verbatim copy of someone's copyrighted work. Microsoft _is_ distributing code snippets here sans its license.