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Derivative work requires a major part of the original, before it’s considered by copyright. A 3 line boilerplate is neither novel nor a major part of the origi

• smaudet 4y ago
  I think if copilot is heavily restricted to three line code samples, perhaps I could agree with this. The example cited by the OP is not a three line code sample - if you've ever done matrix coding, you know that sparse matrix operations are not simple. Sure you can reduce it to a function call, but then you have library usage instead of code theft. I think actually perhaps this is a way copilot could ethically move forward - instead of lifting code verbatim if it merely suggested libraries and approaches "here is an example of sparse matrix filtering and some libraries which do it", that would be both useful and ethical, presuming it does not obscure the license.
  • sdenton4 4y ago
    ...But the example cited by the OP isn't how anyone actually uses copilot... From where I sit, the complainant has found an extremely convoluted (and buggy) way to copy-paste their own code and is very upset about it. By similar logic, we should restrict the use of ctrl-c and ctrl-v, because they allow very simple infringement of open source licenses. Find a sparse matrix multiplication library which uses the copied code without attribution and you can take them to court; the law is already sufficient for this.