Re:GitHub Copilot is not infringing copyright
by TeMPOraL on Monday July 05, 2021 @12:36PM
(#27739644)
Well, the "enough quantities to matter" part wasn't tested in courts yet, but I fail to see a way to rule for "No" here in a way that wouldn't gift us an universal way to turn any code into public domain, destroying source code licensing as a concept. Other than this part, the first two claims have already been demonstrated, and the rest follow from them.
Re:GitHub Copilot is not infringing copyright
by emodendroket on Monday July 05, 2021 @01:12PM
(#27739925)
But that is in fact the most fundamental question here. And Iām not fully sold on the idea either that this is going to happen in real-world usage or that a single function in a massive program constitutes a large enough portion to be infringing.
Re:GitHub Copilot is not infringing copyright
by TeMPOraL on Monday July 05, 2021 @01:29PM
(#27740048)
Quake's square root function wasn't the only, or the largest, example of code Copilot reproduces verbatim. Among others I've seen to date is someone generating a real "About" page with PII information of some random software developer.
How much code is enough to infringe is a tricky question, though. It's not only a function of size, but also of importance/uniqueness - and we know that Copilot doesn't understand these concepts.
Re:GitHub Copilot is not infringing copyright
by shakna on Monday July 05, 2021 @05:47PM
(#27742133)
> ... or that a single function in a massive program constitutes a large enough portion to be infringing.
As part of the sequences of rulings in Google vs Oracle, the 9-line rangeCheck function, in the entirety of the Android codebase, was found to be infringing.
Well aren't all your assertions exactly the point of contention?