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GitHub Copilot copying Quake's fast inverse square root function is a famous example where Copilot copied GPL-licensed code only given the comment // fast

GitHub Copilot copying Quake's fast inverse square root function is a famous example where Copilot copied GPL-licensed code only given the comment // fast inverse square root https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287

Spivak 3y ago
I mean if you ask the tool to produce a specific algorithm by it's very famous name then that's on you. If you ask DALL-E to draw Pikachu you can't be suprised Pikachu when it's a copyright violation.
- lgas 3y ago
  I don't know, it seems like a bit more of a gray area here than with Pikachu. For example, if I said "write me an implementation of fast inverse square root in rust"... and it did... that's certainly not a copyright violation. And if I said "ok, now port this rust code to C..." and it did, then that's certainly not a violation. But then why should I be penalized because the language I want it in happens to be the original language it was written in?
  - ipaddr 3y ago
    A character for character copy including comments? That should be penalized under current law. Why not songs, software, entire books and tv shows?
- ipaddr 3y ago
  You can't play both sides. If you ask it for something with a copyright and it gives it to you, it has broken the law governing this. Ask it for underage porn and it gives it to you.. it broke the law.
- AlotOfReading 3y ago
  Doesn't have to be famous. I gave ChatGPT lines 48-67 of drivers/hwmon/sht21.c [1] and asked it to complete the function. Prompt: Complete the function for an sht21 driver [code omitted] What it returned was the copyrighted function, comments and all: static inline int sht21_rh_ticks_to_per_cent_mille(int ticks) { ticks &= ~0x0003; /* clear status bits / /* Formula RH = -6 + 125 * SRH / 2^16 from data sheet 6.1, * optimized for integer fixed point (3 digits) arithmetic */ return ((15625 * ticks) >> 13) - 6000; } Notice how it even included a comment referencing a specific datasheet! This driver is hardly "famous" or even "notable", because those aren't things LLMs understand. The prompt simply contains enough context to be distinctive and the sht21.c is an old, stable driver in each of the many kernel trees included in its training set. Regurgitation isn't a particularly rare thing with LLMs, most cases just aren't this obvious. [1] https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/c6b0271053e7a5ae57511363213777f706b60489/drivers/hwmon/sht21.c#L48 https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/c6b0271053e7a5ae57511...
az226 3y ago
Unironically — it happens that Carmack said he got it from someone else.

Spivak 3y ago

I mean if you ask the tool to produce a specific algorithm by it's very famous name then that's on you. If you ask DALL-E to draw Pikachu you can't be suprised Pikachu when it's a copyright violation.

lgas 3y ago
I don't know, it seems like a bit more of a gray area here than with Pikachu. For example, if I said "write me an implementation of fast inverse square root in rust"... and it did... that's certainly not a copyright violation. And if I said "ok, now port this rust code to C..." and it did, then that's certainly not a violation. But then why should I be penalized because the language I want it in happens to be the original language it was written in?
- ipaddr 3y ago
  A character for character copy including comments? That should be penalized under current law. Why not songs, software, entire books and tv shows?
ipaddr 3y ago
You can't play both sides. If you ask it for something with a copyright and it gives it to you, it has broken the law governing this. Ask it for underage porn and it gives it to you.. it broke the law.
AlotOfReading 3y ago
Doesn't have to be famous. I gave ChatGPT lines 48-67 of drivers/hwmon/sht21.c [1] and asked it to complete the function. Prompt: Complete the function for an sht21 driver [code omitted] What it returned was the copyrighted function, comments and all: static inline int sht21_rh_ticks_to_per_cent_mille(int ticks) { ticks &= ~0x0003; /* clear status bits / /* Formula RH = -6 + 125 * SRH / 2^16 from data sheet 6.1, * optimized for integer fixed point (3 digits) arithmetic */ return ((15625 * ticks) >> 13) - 6000; } Notice how it even included a comment referencing a specific datasheet! This driver is hardly "famous" or even "notable", because those aren't things LLMs understand. The prompt simply contains enough context to be distinctive and the sht21.c is an old, stable driver in each of the many kernel trees included in its training set. Regurgitation isn't a particularly rare thing with LLMs, most cases just aren't this obvious. [1] https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/c6b0271053e7a5ae57511363213777f706b60489/drivers/hwmon/sht21.c#L48 https://github.com/torvalds/linux/blob/c6b0271053e7a5ae57511...

az226 3y ago

Unironically — it happens that Carmack said he got it from someone else.