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I always get the impression that CoPilot critics have never actually used it to get any work done and are basing their criticism solely on a tweet they saw abou

by woah 4y ago

I always get the impression that CoPilot critics have never actually used it to get any work done and are basing their criticism solely on a tweet they saw about the Quake square root copy pasta function

lelandfe 4y ago
The article itself lists three other recent examples, two of which are clearly copyright infringement https://twitter.com/DocSparse/status/1581461734665367554 https://twitter.com/DocSparse/status/1581461734665367554 It is not a theoretical concern
- falcolas 4y ago
  Oof. LGPL. That "time saver" will infect your entire codebase and open your company to sizable liability. Even if they're never sued, companies will do internal OSS scans to limit their risks which would catch this. The result would be (at minimum) a talking to for the dev who committed it, and developer time spent doing a clean room re-write.
  - charcircuit 4y ago
    >will infect your entire codebase No, it won't. It will only infect the resulting binary.
    - ColonelPhantom 4y ago
      And then I will download a trial of the resulting binary, and send a GPL compliance letter to the company. Unless they took care to use dynamic linking in the LGPL case, they are legally obliged to send me the source code under the license, so I can release it all as FOSS under that license.
      - charcircuit 4y ago
        Yes, they are legally obliged, but they can just tell you to pound sand and you can't do anything because you aren't the copyright holder.
        ColonelPhantom 4y ago
        Then I contact the copyright holder (or one of the many, in case of e.g. the Linux kernel). They probably care, or else they would not use the GPL. I also believe there are organizations that can help such as the Software Freedom Conservancy.
- woah 4y ago
  Ok, 3 tweets where someone has coaxed copilot into reproducing some copypasta for clout. That's just not likely in any real use of copilot since it is typically completing single lines, using the variables and patterns which occur in the file that is being edited. Anybody who had actually used it for work would know that these contrived examples are irrelevant.

by woah 4y ago

lelandfe 4y ago

The article itself lists three other recent examples, two of which are clearly copyright infringement https://twitter.com/DocSparse/status/1581461734665367554 https://twitter.com/DocSparse/status/1581461734665367554 It is not a theoretical concern

falcolas 4y ago
Oof. LGPL. That "time saver" will infect your entire codebase and open your company to sizable liability. Even if they're never sued, companies will do internal OSS scans to limit their risks which would catch this. The result would be (at minimum) a talking to for the dev who committed it, and developer time spent doing a clean room re-write.
- charcircuit 4y ago
  >will infect your entire codebase No, it won't. It will only infect the resulting binary.
  - ColonelPhantom 4y ago
    And then I will download a trial of the resulting binary, and send a GPL compliance letter to the company. Unless they took care to use dynamic linking in the LGPL case, they are legally obliged to send me the source code under the license, so I can release it all as FOSS under that license.
    - charcircuit 4y ago
      Yes, they are legally obliged, but they can just tell you to pound sand and you can't do anything because you aren't the copyright holder.
      - ColonelPhantom 4y ago
        Then I contact the copyright holder (or one of the many, in case of e.g. the Linux kernel). They probably care, or else they would not use the GPL. I also believe there are organizations that can help such as the Software Freedom Conservancy.
woah 4y ago
Ok, 3 tweets where someone has coaxed copilot into reproducing some copypasta for clout. That's just not likely in any real use of copilot since it is typically completing single lines, using the variables and patterns which occur in the file that is being edited. Anybody who had actually used it for work would know that these contrived examples are irrelevant.