Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives?

Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by teddyh on Friday August 19, 2022 @02:12PM (#32524348)

I worry that, if Copilot-like things are ultimately declared to actually be legal, that many free software developers will withdraw their source code from public view, to avoid the code being used as mere fodder for proprietary developers to annex the code without being a part of the free software community.

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by l-p on Friday August 19, 2022 @02:28PM (#32524487)

No need to worry, it's already happening. While I have not withdrawn anything (yet?), I stopped publishing new code to GitHub. I can't be the only one.

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by BrandonJung on Friday August 19, 2022 @03:00PM (#32524823)

Does this change if the AI only uses fully permissive code? We took that approach at Tabnine and would be interested if the communities primary concern is disregard of licensing or the use of AI at all.

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by teddyh on Friday August 19, 2022 @03:08PM (#32524896)

You could only permit it if the AI only used CC0 or Public Domain works. All other works require proper attribution, at the very least.

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by BrandonJung on Monday August 22, 2022 @01:05PM (#32554207)

interesting point

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by rg111 on Friday August 19, 2022 @02:54PM (#32524763)

> withdraw their source code from public view

Why do this if you can just migrate to GitLab or Source Hut?

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by detaro on Friday August 19, 2022 @03:02PM (#32524851)

why do you believe AI companies would never download code from Gitlab or sourcehut?

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by culi on Friday August 19, 2022 @04:05PM (#32525416)

I assume GitHub could force you to allow Copilot to use your code for training with their terms and conditions? Whereas if it's from another source the licensing of the code has to specifically allow for commercial products

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by teddyh on Saturday August 20, 2022 @08:38AM (#32531586)

> I assume GitHub could force you to allow Copilot to use your code for training with their terms and conditions?

You’d think so, wouldn’t you? You’d think that at least Microsoft had some legal veneer to cover what they are doing. But no. They simply took “source code from publicly available sources, including code in public repositories on GitHub”¹ and used it.

1. https://github.com/features/copilot/#what-data-has-github-co...

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Re:Ask HN: Are there any decent GitHub Copilot Alternatives? by detaro on Friday August 19, 2022 @05:16PM (#32525994)

Not really, since people quite often don't own the copyright of code they upload to GH, by design almost.

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