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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

#401

Post by bordercases »

kmeisthax wrote: post #352
rtkwe wrote: post #94

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I think copilot is a clearer copyright violation than any of the stable diffusion projects though because code has a much narrower band of expression than images. It's really easy to look at the output of CoPilot and match it back to the original source and say these are the same. With stable diffusion it's much closer to someone remixing and aping the images than it is reproducing originals. I haven't been following…

The reason why it's easy to match Copilot results back to the original source is that the users are starting with prompts that match their public code, deliberately to cause prompt regurgitation. Stable Diffusion actually has a similar problem. Certain terms that directly call up a particular famous painting by name - say, the Mona Lisa[0] - will just produce that painting, possibly tiled on top of itself, and it won…

No post body was provided.

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

#402

Post by ghoward »

robocat wrote: post #372
williamcotton wrote: post #317

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Asked to give practical advice to starting writers, he said, “Read.” https://www.nytimes.com/2022/09/30/books/early-cormac-mccart...

Imagine telling someone who wanted to learn a sport to watch it. I define someone that writes as a writer. It is the act of writing that enables you to then read and learn from others. An example: a dyslexic friend and a dyslexic family member: their writing communication skills of both is now fine in part because their jobs required it from them (and in part because technology helps). I also had one illiterate frien…

Coming from an actual, though unpublished, writer: you are right.

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

#403

Post by dragonwriter »

Filligree wrote: post #324
bigiain wrote: post #305

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Surely at the very least it'd be a TOS violation? I doubt any stock photo service grants you enough rights to redistribute their watermarked free image samples? Especially not in the context of a project like Stable Diffusion?

But it's not reproducing their samples. It's just adding their watermark to newly generated pictures you can't find in the training set.

The watermark of a stock photo service is usually copyright protected, and also a (usually registered) trademark.

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

#404

Post by minhazm »

svnt wrote: post #346
_ryanjsalva wrote: post #313

Howdy, folks. Ryan here from the GitHub Copilot product team. I don’t know how the original poster’s machine was set-up, but I’m gonna throw out a few theories about what could be happening. If similar code is open in your VS Code project, Copilot can draw context from those adjacent files. This can make it appear that the public model was trained on your private code, when in fact the context is drawn from local fil…

This doesn’t at all address the primary issue, which is one of licensing. Is it a valid defense against copyright infringement to say “we don’t know where we got it, maybe someone else copied it from you first?” If someone violated the copyright of a song by sampling too much of it and released it in the public domain (or failed to claim it at all), and you take the entire sample from them, would that hold up in a le…

It does address it, although not that clearly. This happens all the time with news media. They will post a picture and say they got permission from X person, but X person actually didn't even own the copyright in the first place. That doesn't make any of it okay, but it does mean that the organization has legal cover in this case and the worst that will happen is that they'll have to take the content down. In GitHub's case if that same code snippet is found in other repo's that have different licensing then it's difficult to really prove who owns the copyright, it's a legal issue between the original copyright owner and the person that re-distributed the work. They can submit a DCMA takedown notice for the other repo's. But it's pretty unlikely Github gets into any legal trouble as long as they can prove that they got the snippet from someone else.

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

#405

Post by Gigachad »

BeFlatXIII wrote: post #366
ghoward wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a programmer who has written extensively on my blog and HN against Copilot. I am also not a hypocrite; I do not like DALL-E or Stable Diffusion either. As a sibling comment implies, these AI tools give more power to people who control data, i.e., big companies or wealthy people, while at the same time, they take power away from individuals. Copilot is bad for society. DALL-E and Stable Diffusion are bad for soci…

Thankfully, Stable Diffusion is on thousands of hard drives, so the genie can't be put back in the bottle.

I don’t think anyone believes it’s possible. Even the “ai ethicists” have to realise this. We can still acknowledge that these tools can be bad for society while knowing they can’t be stopped.

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

#406

Post by Gigachad »

epolanski wrote: post #215
ghoward wrote: post #27

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am a programmer who has written extensively on my blog and HN against Copilot. I am also not a hypocrite; I do not like DALL-E or Stable Diffusion either. As a sibling comment implies, these AI tools give more power to people who control data, i.e., big companies or wealthy people, while at the same time, they take power away from individuals. Copilot is bad for society. DALL-E and Stable Diffusion are bad for soci…

What makes them bad? I am against Copilot because Microsoft is training the models with public data disregarding copyright (also, doesn't include it's own code).

Not the OP but I have a sinking feeling that these AI tools are going to take away from the most enjoyable careers and creative pursuits and leave us with only mundane button pusher AI supervisor jobs.

Current AI is not replacing anything yet but I feel we are only a few years before AI can do a better job at drawing or programming than someone with years of practice. Sure, you can utilise those tools to stay ahead. But will AI prompt engineer be as emotionally satisfying as drawing for real?

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

#407

Post by pabs3 »

Thorrez wrote: post #389
_ryanjsalva wrote: post #353

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Good call. Done. https://twitter.com/docsparse/status/1581461734665367554?s=4...

It looks like you linked to the original, not the reply. There are so many replies to the original tweet that it's hard to find any specific reply.

The replies appear to be here:

https://nitter.net/ryanjsalva/with_replies

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

#408

Post by ISL »

theteapot wrote: post #392
kmeisthax wrote: post #352

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The reason why it's easy to match Copilot results back to the original source is that the users are starting with prompts that match their public code, deliberately to cause prompt regurgitation. Stable Diffusion actually has a similar problem. Certain terms that directly call up a particular famous painting by name - say, the Mona Lisa[0] - will just produce that painting, possibly tiled on top of itself, and it won…

> The reason why it's easy to match Copilot results back to the original source is that the users are starting with prompts that match their public code, deliberately to cause prompt regurgitation. Sounds like MS has devised a massive automated code laundering racket.

Seems more like a massive class-action copyright target, potentially at ($50k/infraction) x (the number of usages).

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

#409

Post by makeitdouble »

Filligree wrote: post #329
matkoniecz wrote: post #253

Earlier quoted context omitted.

https://alexanderwales.com/wp-content/uploads/2022/08/image.... Left: “Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer” by Stable Diffusion Right: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer This specific one is not copyright violation as it is old enough for copyright to expire. But the same may happen with other images. from https://alexanderwales.com/the-ai-art-apocalypse/ and https://alexanderwales.com/addendum-…

If a human drew that, it would not be copyright violation.

If the original art is still copyrighted, and you’d start selling your hand drawn variation, you’d totally be violating the copyright.

To make it concrete, imagine the latest Disney movie poster. You redraw it 95% close to the original, just changing the actual title. Then you sell your poster on Amazon at half the price of the actual poster. Would you get a copyright strike ?

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

#410

Post by sicp-enjoyer »

acoustics wrote: post #6

I’ve noticed that people tend to disapprove of AI trained on their profession’s data, but are usually indifferent or positive about other applications of AI. For example, I know artists who are vehemently against DALL-E, Stable Diffusion, etc. and regard it as stealing, but they view Copilot and GPT-3 as merely useful tools. I also know software devs who are extremely excited about AI art and GPT-3 but are outraged b…

Does it cost money to produce high quality training sets? Yes. Would an organization or individual be willing to pay for samples for their data set? Absolutely. It seems pretty easy to discern that value is being taken from people.
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