Re:An experiment to test GitHub Copilot's legality
by mpalmer on Saturday July 02, 2022 @11:39PM
(#31964838)
Microsoft doesn't come away a winner either in that scenario. They're left with a product that can infect their customer's code with unwanted license, not to mention questions about the ethics of reproducing code to such a level of fidelity that you trigger the license.
There's a third outcome not mentioned here though. The author loses both cases but Microsoft's Copilot is still legal. That's because there's major difference between releasing a product from AI generated code, and Microsoft releasing the AI itself. Microsoft Copilot might generate code derived from GPL, but it's up to the developer to ensure that it isn't before releasing it.
The precedent that Copilot sets is that you can train AI to generate copyleft code, but that doesn't mean you get to release it.