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I think you underestimate just how careful “real” businesses are when it comes to violating the (copyright) law. Any legal advisor at any corp will strongly adv

I think you underestimate just how careful “real” businesses are when it comes to violating the (copyright) law. Any legal advisor at any corp will strongly advice against using code that’s generated like this, until there is clear legal precedent that it’s OK to do this.

sroussey 4y ago
True, and that will cause a departure between companies large enough to worry, and all the startups that don’t.
hnfong 4y ago
Does that involve a ban of stackoverflow use as well? https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing I don't think I've heard anyone warn people not to copy code snippets from stackoverflow due to licensing issues, although "real" businesses should be rightfully concerned.
- gkbrk 4y ago
  It's already a common practice to put a StackOverflow link as a comment when you copy code from them. It provides valuable context to future readers. That's probably enough for attribution, but I suppose one could copy the author name as well.
formerly_proven 4y ago
Doesn't Microsoft already use Copilot internally?
- sublimefire 4y ago
  Yep they do, but I did not see anyone generating chunks of gpl'd .NET code yet.
  - pc86 4y ago
    Microsoft puts out a lot of non-.NET code, including internally.
- robocat 4y ago
  Of course if only used on internal software that isn’t distributed, then copying GPL code is fine. Until a developer inadvertently distributes it or copies code from one place to another…
serial_dev 4y ago
I think you underestimate how easy it is for developers to disregard what the Corp lawyer said about AI code gen tools. Manager: "we asked, legal says you can't use copilot", dev: "okay, so from now on, I'll not discuss how I use copilot and will remember to disable it when someone sees me working, gotcha". I'm not saying everyone will do this, I'm saying some people will know that the corp doesn't always have a way to verify how the code was written, and they will think that a lawsuit cannot really happen to them.
- Filligree 4y ago
  > Manager: "we asked, legal says you can't use copilot", dev: "okay, so from now on, I'll not discuss how I use copilot and will remember to disable it when someone sees me working, gotcha". Manager: "Everyone else is running through their feature list faster than you. What gives? Remember, you're not allowed to use Copilot." IC: "I'm not using Copilot." Manager: "Remember, you're not allowed to use Copilot."

sroussey 4y ago

True, and that will cause a departure between companies large enough to worry, and all the startups that don’t.

hnfong 4y ago

Does that involve a ban of stackoverflow use as well? https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing https://stackoverflow.com/help/licensing I don't think I've heard anyone warn people not to copy code snippets from stackoverflow due to licensing issues, although "real" businesses should be rightfully concerned.

gkbrk 4y ago
It's already a common practice to put a StackOverflow link as a comment when you copy code from them. It provides valuable context to future readers. That's probably enough for attribution, but I suppose one could copy the author name as well.

formerly_proven 4y ago

Doesn't Microsoft already use Copilot internally?

sublimefire 4y ago
Yep they do, but I did not see anyone generating chunks of gpl'd .NET code yet.
- pc86 4y ago
  Microsoft puts out a lot of non-.NET code, including internally.
robocat 4y ago
Of course if only used on internal software that isn’t distributed, then copying GPL code is fine. Until a developer inadvertently distributes it or copies code from one place to another…

serial_dev 4y ago

I think you underestimate how easy it is for developers to disregard what the Corp lawyer said about AI code gen tools. Manager: "we asked, legal says you can't use copilot", dev: "okay, so from now on, I'll not discuss how I use copilot and will remember to disable it when someone sees me working, gotcha". I'm not saying everyone will do this, I'm saying some people will know that the corp doesn't always have a way to verify how the code was written, and they will think that a lawsuit cannot really happen to them.

Filligree 4y ago
> Manager: "we asked, legal says you can't use copilot", dev: "okay, so from now on, I'll not discuss how I use copilot and will remember to disable it when someone sees me working, gotcha". Manager: "Everyone else is running through their feature list faster than you. What gives? Remember, you're not allowed to use Copilot." IC: "I'm not using Copilot." Manager: "Remember, you're not allowed to use Copilot."