Re:Copilot sells code other people wrote
by olalonde on Thursday June 23, 2022 @08:28AM
(#31848068)
Do you have an example of Github Copilot doing that? Like a snippet of code generated by Copilot and a link to the original source code.
[ Parent
| on HN ]
An example posted here on HN.
Thanks. Personally, I feel like such small and widely used mathematical algorithms should not be copyrightable (or using them should fall under fair use). It even has its own Wikipedia page[0], where the source code is also reproduced without copyright notice.
Re:Copilot sells code other people wrote
by zzo38computer on Thursday June 23, 2022 @05:53PM
(#31855595)
I also implemented this algorithm in MMIX:
% Constants
FISRCON GREG #5FE6EB50C7B537A9
THREHAF GREG #3FF8000000000000
% Save half of the original number
OR $2,$0,0
INCH $2,#FFF0
% Bit level hacking
SRU $1,$0,1
SUBU $0,FISRCON,$1
% First iteration
FMUL $1,$2,$0
FMUL $1,$1,$0
FSUB $1,THREHAF,$1
FMUL $0,$0,$1
% Second iteration
FMUL $1,$2,$0
FMUL $1,$1,$0
FSUB $1,THREHAF,$1
FMUL $0,$0,$1
(Note this assumes that the input number is not too small; if it is, then it will not be possible to compute half by this algorithm. Also, like with the original code, the second iteration may be omitted if desired.)(This comment and the MMIX code it contains, and all other comments that I wrote on here, are I agree release it to public domain.)
It’s the verbatim replication of the comments that makes this a damning piece of evidence against the “it’s not copying code, it’s an AI” argument.