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GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

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Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#131

Post by galleywest200 »

bmitc wrote: post #87

What does > with "public code" blocked mean? Are you able set a setting in GitHub to tell GitHub that you don't want your code used for Copilot training data? Is this an abuse of the license you sign with GitHub, or did they update it at some point to allow your code to be automatically used in Copilot? I'm not crazy about the idea of paying GitHub for them to make money off of my code/data.

The option to omit "public code" means it should, in theory, omit code that is licensed under such banners as the GPL. It does not mean "omit private repositories".

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#132

Post by chiefalchemist »

tpm wrote: post #46
naillo wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I mean we definitely can stop it. Laws are a pretty strong deterrent.

What would the law do? Forbid automatic data collection and/or indexing and further use without explicit copyright holder agreement? That would essentially ban the whole internet as we know it, not saying that would be bad, but this is never going to happen, too much accumulated momentum in the opposite direction.

To your point, the law can do a lot of things. The issue here is the clarity and ability to enforce the law.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#133

Post by ianbutler »

shadowgovt wrote: post #111
ianbutler wrote: post #85

I just tested it myself on a random c file I created in the middle of a rust project I'm working on, it reproduced his full code verbatim from just the function header so clearly it does regurgitate proprietary code unlike some people have said, I do not have his source so co-pilot isn't just using existing context. I've been finding co-pilot really useful but I'll be pausing it for now, and I'm glad I have only been…

Searching for the function names in his libraries, I'm seeing some 32,000 hits. I suspect he has a different problem which (thanks to Microsoft) is now a problem he has to care about: his code probably shows up in one or more repos copy-pasted with improper LGPL attribution. There'd be no way for Copilot to know that had happened, and it would have mixed in the code. (As a side note: understanding why an ML engine ou…

Yeah that's a mess, but that's way too much legal baggage for me, an otherwise innocent end user, to want to take on. Especially when I personally tend to try and monetize a lot of my work.

I understand there's no way for the model to know, but it's really on Microsoft then to ensure no private, or poorly licensed or proprietary code is included in the training set. That sounds like a very tall order, but I think they're going to have to otherwise they're eventually going to run into legal problems with someone who has enough money to make it hurt for them.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#134

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

CapsAdmin wrote: post #107

I would imagine the root problem here is people taking copyrighted code, pasting it in their project and disregarding the license. To me this seems common, especially when it comes to toy, test and hobby projects. I don't see how copilot or similar tools can solve this problem without vetting each project.

That's an entirely plausible explanation, but it doesn't mean that Microsoft has any less of a legal nightmare on their hands.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#135

Post by galleywest200 »

betaby wrote: post #35
jijji wrote: post #26

if you're posting your code publicly on the web, its hard to get upset that people are seeing/using it

It's under the very specific license though. With your logic it's OK to train AI on a leaked Windows code then. It is/was publicly on the web.

While I agree with the first portion of your rebuttal, the second portion makes no sense as leaked code is not "you" putting it on the internet. It would be a nefarious actor doing so.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#136

Post by banana_giraffe »

c7b wrote: post #99
tpxl wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

When Joe Rando plays a song from 1640 on a violin he gets a copyright claim on Youtube. When Jane Rando uses devtools to check a website source code she gets sued. When Microsoft steals all code on their platform and sells it, they get lauded. When "Open" AI steals thousands of copyrighted images and sells them, they get lauded. I am skeptical of imaginary property myself, but fuck this one set of rules for the poor,…

> When Joe Rando plays a song from 1640 on a violin he gets a copyright claim on Youtube. When Jane Rando uses devtools to check a website source code she gets sued. Do you have any evidence for those claims, or anything resembling those examples? Music copyright has long expired for classical music, and big shots are definitely not exempt from where it applies. Just look at how much heat Ed Sheeran, one of the bigge…

https://twitter.com/mpoessel/status/1545178842385489923

Among many others. Classical music may have fallen into public domain, but modern performances of it is copyrightable, and some of the big companies use copyright matching systems, including YouTube's, that often flags new performances as copies of recordings.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#137

Post by betaby »

lerpgame wrote: post #97
betaby wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It's under the very specific license though. With your logic it's OK to train AI on a leaked Windows code then. It is/was publicly on the web.

code licenses will be irrelevant in a few years if you are able to refactor anything you want using ai.

Unless lawyers from the music industry step in.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#138

Post by yjftsjthsd-h »

deworms wrote: post #88

It prints this code because you have it open in another editor tab. Wish people who don't know at all how it works stopped acting all outraged when they're laughably wrong.

> It prints this code because you have it open in another editor tab.

People upthread have reproduced and demonstrated that that's not the issue here.

EDIT: Actually, OP says "The variant it produces is not on my machine." - https://twitter.com/DocSparse/status/1581560976398114822

> Wish people who don't know at all how it works stopped acting all outraged when they're laughably wrong.

Physician, heal thyself.

Re: GitHub Copilot, with “public code” blocked, emits my copyrighted code

#140

Post by deepspace »

This shows how copyright is all screwed up. Let's say the code in question is based on a published algorithm, maybe Yuster and Zwick, (I did not check).

What exactly gives Davis a better claim to the copyright than the inventors of the algorithm? Yes, I know software is copyrightable while algorithms are not, but it is not at all clear to my why that should be the case. The effort of translating an algorithm into code is trivial compared to designing the algorithm in the first place, no?

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