Re:GitHub Copilot is not infringing copyright
by hnfong on Monday July 05, 2021 @06:05PM
(#27742251)
> Where do we draw the line?
I won't even claim that people must necessarily follow the law. Copyright law is inconsistent at best, and notoriously hard to follow to the letter (and often ridiculous). In practice lawyers assess the legal risk and weigh the outcomes.
I never intended to discuss what we should do, and I definitely did not propose shutting down the internet...
The original discussion was such:
> > They did not copy the implementation, they copied the general idea of what the algorithm should do
> [Citation needed]
You said the original authors did not complain, which is neither here nor there, as I pointed out. There is still some theoretical legal risk if you copy with the owner's knowledge but not express consent. The fact that the burden of proof is on the authors is true but that they have not brought a claim does not mean they cannot prove infringement.
And in case I haven't made it clear, I don't think it's a bad idea to assume the function is under GPL, I just don't think there's a basis for claiming what you originally claimed, and there is still some level of (probably acceptable) risk if you take the purported license of source code as-is.
I won't even claim that people must necessarily follow the law. Copyright law is inconsistent at best, and notoriously hard to follow to the letter (and often ridiculous). In practice lawyers assess the legal risk and weigh the outcomes.
I never intended to discuss what we should do, and I definitely did not propose shutting down the internet...
The original discussion was such:
> > They did not copy the implementation, they copied the general idea of what the algorithm should do
> [Citation needed]
You said the original authors did not complain, which is neither here nor there, as I pointed out. There is still some theoretical legal risk if you copy with the owner's knowledge but not express consent. The fact that the burden of proof is on the authors is true but that they have not brought a claim does not mean they cannot prove infringement.
And in case I haven't made it clear, I don't think it's a bad idea to assume the function is under GPL, I just don't think there's a basis for claiming what you originally claimed, and there is still some level of (probably acceptable) risk if you take the purported license of source code as-is.