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GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

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Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#21

Post by joe_the_user »

gdsdfe wrote: post #2

Nothing is free people! ... People are outraged by GitHub but nobody is going after Facebook or Google for training their AIs on your personal data. Facebook used your face to train some algos, google your personal emails etc.

Well, "nothing is free" doesn't mean someone can blatantly violate a license 'cause they have rent to pay.

Maybe people should be mad about what Facebook or Google do but that stuff doesn't involve taking stuff outside their terms of use.

Maybe Github could try attaching a "we can relicense all your code whenever we want" condition to their hosting but they'd lose all their business.

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#22

Post by [deleted] »

detaro wrote: post #16
toomuchtodo wrote: post #14

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So sue them and a court opinion can demonstrate where the line is and how much code can be replicated before attribution is required (and the product can be refined to ensure compliance). Innovation should push boundaries.

They could push boundaries and publish one trained on all of Microsofts internal source code. Would for me be a great demonstration that they believe the "it's fair use and not violating copyright on the training data" argument.

[deleted]

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#23

Post by dheera »

chartreusek wrote: post #11
iliekcomputers wrote: post #3

If you open-sourced code and allowed it to be used for commercial purposes, I don't see the point of being pissy about Github using it, I'm saying this as someone who's written quite a lot of MIT code. (And charging for a product which adds value to your developer experience and needs money to be run is not a bad thing)

Sure, but there's still the license at play here. It's not like they trained it only on public domain/CC0 code. What happens when it verbatim outputs a significant amount of code that was originally MIT, or BSD, or GPL licensed without the appropriate attribution. It can create unintended copyright violations and potentially open people using it up to liability.

I suppose it really depends on if they spit out verbatim reproductions of code or whether it is the equivalent of a 10-year experienced programmer who has just seen a lot of code but isn't reproducing anything verbatim.

We shall see, by Googling some of the code it spits out.

FWIW GPT-3 doesn't really tend to spit out verbatim reproductions of copyrighted books.

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#24

Post by jwalton »

hmfrh wrote: post #15
iliekcomputers wrote: post #3

If you open-sourced code and allowed it to be used for commercial purposes, I don't see the point of being pissy about Github using it, I'm saying this as someone who's written quite a lot of MIT code. (And charging for a product which adds value to your developer experience and needs money to be run is not a bad thing)

> If you open-sourced code and allowed it to be used for commercial purposes Uploading it to Github does not transfer ownership or imply allowances for any use. If you upload it without a license it is a copyright violation to copy the code. Even with an MIT license it is a copyright violation to copy the code without attribution. > I don't see the point of being pissy about Github using it, I'm saying this as someon…

> Even with an MIT license it is a copyright violation to copy the code without attribution.

That was my take originally, but apparently this is not as cut and dry as you may think:

https://www.technollama.co.uk/is-githubs-copilot-potentially...

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#25

Post by dopaminefasting »

hbz65 wrote: post #7
iliekcomputers wrote: post #3

If you open-sourced code and allowed it to be used for commercial purposes, I don't see the point of being pissy about Github using it, I'm saying this as someone who's written quite a lot of MIT code. (And charging for a product which adds value to your developer experience and needs money to be run is not a bad thing)

“Free and open source, assuming I approve of the usage” is a common sentiment among people who paste Apache or MIT and don’t think about the ramifications. It’s increasingly common. I think this situation is slightly more complex but that sentiment is at the heart of a lot of pushback against things like this.

All the people in this thread angry that GitHub is using MIT software in a way permitted by its license... depressing.

The MIT license doesn't require attribution for small snippets, only for full copies or substantial portions.

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#27

Post by JBorrow »

dheera wrote: post #23
chartreusek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but there's still the license at play here. It's not like they trained it only on public domain/CC0 code. What happens when it verbatim outputs a significant amount of code that was originally MIT, or BSD, or GPL licensed without the appropriate attribution. It can create unintended copyright violations and potentially open people using it up to liability.

I suppose it really depends on if they spit out verbatim reproductions of code or whether it is the equivalent of a 10-year experienced programmer who has just seen a lot of code but isn't reproducing anything verbatim. We shall see, by Googling some of the code it spits out. FWIW GPT-3 doesn't really tend to spit out verbatim reproductions of copyrighted books.

See this discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#28

Post by gdsdfe »

SamWhited wrote: post #12
gdsdfe wrote: post #2

Nothing is free people! ... People are outraged by GitHub but nobody is going after Facebook or Google for training their AIs on your personal data. Facebook used your face to train some algos, google your personal emails etc.

It's not about it being free, it's about GitHub taking something you licensed with conditions (ie. attribution or keep this copyright notice and license file, etc.) and blatantly ignoring your license because they know you probably can't afford to sue them for copyright infringement. Open Source doesn't mean you can reproduce and copy the code freely, licenses exist for a reason. Also: of course people care about Fac…

Your license means nothing if you can't defend it. If you paid for the service they wouldn't dare using your code regardless of the license.

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#29

Post by [deleted] »

dopaminefasting wrote: post #18
SamWhited wrote: post #6

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you write MIT code you expect them not to strip your license out in derivative works. This is exactly what license are for and GitHub is blatantly violating it while people applaud.

Maybe read the MIT license before you grab the pitchforks: "The above copyright notice and this permission notice shall be included in all COPIES OR SUBSTANTIAL PORTIONS of the Software." Reusing a snippet doesn't require reproducing the MIT license. People who publish MIT software know they're basically giving their code out with basically no strings attached. However, GitHub should be careful with the GPL variety.

[deleted]

Re: GitHub scraped your code. And they plan to charge you

#30

Post by Gaelan »

dheera wrote: post #23
chartreusek wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, but there's still the license at play here. It's not like they trained it only on public domain/CC0 code. What happens when it verbatim outputs a significant amount of code that was originally MIT, or BSD, or GPL licensed without the appropriate attribution. It can create unintended copyright violations and potentially open people using it up to liability.

I suppose it really depends on if they spit out verbatim reproductions of code or whether it is the equivalent of a 10-year experienced programmer who has just seen a lot of code but isn't reproducing anything verbatim. We shall see, by Googling some of the code it spits out. FWIW GPT-3 doesn't really tend to spit out verbatim reproductions of copyrighted books.

Copilot spitting out fast inverse square root, verbatim: https://twitter.com/mitsuhiko/status/1410886329924194309

HN discussion: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=27710287

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