Live data from Hacker News

All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

twitter.com

541–550 of 734 posts

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#541
The way I see it is that MS has probably put as much financial investment in the development of this product as in the research of legalities regarding its release with its highly paid legal army. To expect a multi billion dollar company to not do its due diligence seems naive.

Maybe this could spark a discussion to change the current rules that allow them to do this, but questioning the current legality to me is a waste of time.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#543

I am really confused by HN's response to copilot. It seems like before the twitter thread on it went viral, the only people who cared about programmers copying (verbatim!) short snippets of code like this would be lawyers and executives. Suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodworks as copyright maximalists? I know HN loves a good "well actually" and Microsoft is always suspect, but let's leave the idea of code la…

idk, I don't quite enjoy the idea of having my code stolen without any respect for its licence or even attribution

but then again I migrated away from github as soon as MS bought it

still, it's a matter of principle

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#544

I am really confused by HN's response to copilot. It seems like before the twitter thread on it went viral, the only people who cared about programmers copying (verbatim!) short snippets of code like this would be lawyers and executives. Suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodworks as copyright maximalists? I know HN loves a good "well actually" and Microsoft is always suspect, but let's leave the idea of code la…

Programmers love to pretend that they're lawyers, especially when it comes to copyright law. Something about the law really appeals to hackers!

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#545

I am really confused by HN's response to copilot. It seems like before the twitter thread on it went viral, the only people who cared about programmers copying (verbatim!) short snippets of code like this would be lawyers and executives. Suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodworks as copyright maximalists? I know HN loves a good "well actually" and Microsoft is always suspect, but let's leave the idea of code la…

It's a pretty standard "big company releases new thing" reaction. HN is usually negative on everything.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#546

The way I see it is that MS has probably put as much financial investment in the development of this product as in the research of legalities regarding its release with its highly paid legal army. To expect a multi billion dollar company to not do its due diligence seems naive. Maybe this could spark a discussion to change the current rules that allow them to do this, but questioning the current legality to me is a w…

It's a gamble. Worst case they have to reduce the quality by removing GPL code from the training data. And/or pay off a few lawsuits, which is routine stuff for them. Cost of doing business.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#547

I am really confused by HN's response to copilot. It seems like before the twitter thread on it went viral, the only people who cared about programmers copying (verbatim!) short snippets of code like this would be lawyers and executives. Suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodworks as copyright maximalists? I know HN loves a good "well actually" and Microsoft is always suspect, but let's leave the idea of code la…

Of copilot were open source I wouldn't have an issue with it. However it is closed source and a later version it's intended to be sold.

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#548

I think it’s pretty easy to defeat MS in court. We just need to bring the music industry into this! For example: Let’s train a network on Beatles music to generate new Beatles songs. I’m pretty sure music lawyers will find a way to prove that the trained network is violating the label’s copyright, as they always manage to do that. And then we just need to use the precedent and argue that music is the same thing as co…

That already exists though? SongSmith and other similar tools are used by musicians a lot.

At what point is it not a derivative work?

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#549

I am really confused by HN's response to copilot. It seems like before the twitter thread on it went viral, the only people who cared about programmers copying (verbatim!) short snippets of code like this would be lawyers and executives. Suddenly everyone is coming out of the woodworks as copyright maximalists? I know HN loves a good "well actually" and Microsoft is always suspect, but let's leave the idea of code la…

Hacker News hates everything, especially if it seems to work. Don't read into it.

"Please don't sneer, including at the rest of the community."

https://news.ycombinator.com/newsguidelines.html

Re: All public GitHub code was used in training Copilot

#550
Guys please read the Terms of Use of Github section D.4.

We need the legal right to do things like host Your Content, publish it, and share it. You grant us and our legal successors the right to store, archive, parse, and display Your Content, and make incidental copies, as necessary to provide the Service, including improving the Service over time. This license includes the right to do things like copy it to our database and make backups; show it to you and other users; parse it into a search index or otherwise analyze it on our servers; share it with other users; and perform it, in case Your Content is something like music or video.

This license does not grant GitHub the right to sell Your Content. It also does not grant GitHub the right to otherwise distribute or use Your Content outside of our provision of the Service, except that as part of the right to archive Your Content, GitHub may permit our partners to store and archive Your Content in public repositories in connection with the GitHub Arctic Code Vault and GitHub Archive Program.

Post reply on HN