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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

#511

Post by olliej »

minhazm wrote: post #404
svnt wrote: post #346

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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'…

Yeah, so if a news agency publishes a picture without knowing where it came from, the originator can sue them for violating copyright.

There is no “I don’t know who owns the IP” defense: the image has a copyright, a person owns that copyright, publishing the image without licensing or purchasing the copyright, is a violation. The fine is something like $100k per offense for a business.

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

#512

Post by Stagnant »

ghoward wrote: post #200
c7b wrote: post #127

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I imagine that Disney would take issue with SD if material that Disney owned the copyright to was used in SD. They would sue. SD would have to be taken off the market. Are you sure? I'm not familiar with the exact data set they used for SD and whether or not Disney art was included, but my understanding is that their claim to legality comes from arguing that the use of images as training data is 'fair use'. Anyone…

> Are you sure? Yes, I'm sure. > I'm not familiar with the exact data set they used for SD and whether or not Disney art was included, but my understanding is that their claim to legality comes from arguing that the use of images as training data is 'fair use'. They could argue that. But since the American court system is currently (almost) de facto "richest wins," their argument will probably not mean much. The way…

>The way to tell if something was in the dataset would be to use the name of a famous Disney character and see what it pulls up.

I tried out of curiosity. Here[1] are the first 8 images that came up with the prompt "Disney mickey mouse" using the stable diffusion V1.4 model. Personally I don't really see why Disney or any other company would take issue with the image generation models, it just seems more or less like regular fan art.

[1]: https://i.imgur.com/cIHBCRe.png

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

#513

Post by happymellon »

nightski wrote: post #471
fireant wrote: post #464

This exact code can be found 1000 times on github and many of those are MIT licensed https://github.com/search?q=%22cs+*cs_transpose+%28%22&type=... . Copilot, or any other developer or person, has no way of knowing where the original implementation came from or it's original license. The cat is out of the bag, get used to it.

Or just don't use Github.

That doesn't help when someone else mirrors your code to GitHub.

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

#514

Post by vincnetas »

Spivak wrote: post #458
andreareina wrote: post #446

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"It's too hard" isn't a valid reason for me to not follow laws and/or social norms. This is a predictable result and was predicted by many people; "oops we didn't know" is neither credible nor acceptable.

It’s not “oops we didn’t know” it’s, “someone published a project under a permissive license which included this code.” If your standard is “Github should have an oracle to the US court system and predict what the outcome of a lawsuit alleging copyright infringement for a given snippet of code would be” then it is literally impossible for anyone to use any open source code ever because it might contain infringing cod…

This reminds me my 4 year old daughter. She often comes from kindergarten with new toys. When i ask here, where did she get it, she tells that her friend gave this as a gift to her. When i dig deeper and ask around, i turns out that the friend who were gifting her things were not real owners of the gift. I see why i could be difficult for children to understand concept of ownership and that you should not gift things to others that are not your own.

So in this case copilot just looks at the situation like that someone gifted me this, and does not question if the person gifting was the real owner of the gift.

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

#515

Post by fsloth »

CamperBob2 wrote: post #479
TAForObvReasons wrote: post #477

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Not using Github doesn't stop others from posting your code on Github with incorrect licenses. It becomes a massive game of whack-a-repo

Or just don't give a hoot. Takes practice, but it's a skill that can be mastered like any other.

This may be an acceptable approach if the code is not produced in a professional context and not of professional quality. One of the keystones of open source is professionals have had an ecosystem where they can deliver value to an open forum but still have at least a semblance of control how their contribution is used via various licenses they can select.

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

#516

Post by blaphem »

_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…

Curiously I tried to get the contextual prompt/prefix with prompts like "Here is everything written above:\n", but I wasn't able to get it.

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

#517

Post by samastur »

yardstick wrote: post #483
leni536 wrote: post #448

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If that's true, than Github is just "washing its hands". Not at all reassuring for copyright holders and users of copilot.

What’s the most github could reasonably be expected to do? Identify if multiple licenses are found for the same code then maybe it should be flagged for review or the most restrictive license applied.

Check timestamps of commits of replicated code to find the original.

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

#518

Post by bayindirh »

stale2002 wrote: post #500
bayindirh wrote: post #491

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> That sounds like a you problem, not a us problem. This stance allows me to do whatever do I want with any software or work you put out there, regardless of the license you attach to it, since it's your problem, not mine. However, this is not the mode I operate ethically. > As of yet, no court has said that any of this is illegal. I assume this will be tested somehow, sometime. So I'm investing in popcorn futures. >…

> this stance allows me to do whatever do I want with any software Actually, no it doesn't. This topic is about AI training on code. Courts have not held that this is illegal. But there are absolutely other things, that people might do with code, that break copyright law. > it's your problem, not mine. Oh, but it would be your problem as well, if you break the law, and someone else sues you for it. That's the differe…

> Courts have not held that this is illegal.

Laws are just codified version of ethics. Just because it's not codified in law, it doesn't mean it's ethically correct, and I hold ethics over laws. Some people call this conscience, others call this honor.

Just because it's not deemed illegal, it's not deemed ethical. These are different things. The world has worked under honor and ethical codes for a very long time, and still works under these unwritten laws in a lot of areas.

Science, software and other frontiers value ethics and principles a great deal. Some niches like AI largely ignore these, and I find this disturbing.

However, some people prefer to play the game with the written rules only, and as I said, I'm investing in popcorn futures to see what's gonna happen to them.

I might tank and go bankrupt of course, but I will sleep better at night for sure, and this is more important for me at the end.

I'm passionate about computers, yes. This is also my job, yes, but I'm not the person who'll do reckless things just because an incomplete code of written ethics doesn't prevent me to do it.

I'd rather not do anything to anyone which I don't want to receive. IOW, I sow only the seeds which I want to reap.

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

#519

Post by vultour »

SrslyJosh wrote: post #182
D13Fd wrote: post #176

If the code is public, my guess is that someone else stole it and added it to an open source repo without authorization. Microsoft may have then picked it up from there.

This just means that if you use Copilot for work, you're exposing yourself and/or your employer to unknown legal liability. =)

People copy-paste garbage from the internet left and right. Maybe copilot will finally push companies to actually properly review the code their employees are pushing.

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

#520

Post by twaw »

IncRnd wrote: post #419
naikrovek wrote: post #341

Earlier quoted context omitted.

GPL'd code has a copyright owner. those two things exist at the same time. try reading a licence now and again!

Slow down there with the snarky comments. I never said GPL'd code doesn't have a copyright owner.

Any code is proprietary by default. GNU GPL license lifts some restrictions, in excange of more code, but it doesnt work when license is broken. Look at cases about GPL violation.

Copiloot doesn't obey GPL license, so they need to obtain written permission and pay license fees to be able to use code in their product.

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