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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

#791

Post by tluyben2 »

matwood wrote: post #648
tluyben2 wrote: post #540

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> If you're concerned that software developers job security is at all at risk from co-pilot than you greatly misunderstand how software engineering works. I think you are vastly underestimating how many professionally employed software developers are replaceable by copilot at this very moment. The managers are not caught up yet and you seem to be lucky not having to work with this type of dev, but I have had 1000s of…

> ‘put code and see the result’ Isn't this basically all UI programming? :D Joking aside, I see this 'person X doesn't know anything, but they are still delivering' attitude quite a bit on HN now. They clearly know something , and projects like co-pilot will make them even more effective. I think the opposite of you - that projects like co-pilot will further lower the barriers of entry to programming and expand those…

Oh I do believe you are right, I just don’t think this is a thing just anyone can learn: many ‘outsourcing’ programmers/coders don’t really understand what they are working on; they just finish tasks. I have no stats, but in companies I worked/work with, it is the vast majority. They don’t know or care about the business goals, they just perform tasks and then go home. This is almost already replaceable by copilot.

Like I said; it is a great thing for me but I don’t believe developers without talent and/or rigorous foundations will make it. Go on Upwork and try to find someone who can do more than the same work (mostly copy paste) that they always did. In an interview when you ask someone to use map/reduce to create a map/dict, they will glaze over. This is the norm, not the exception, no matter the pay. Some of them have 10 years experience but cannot do anything else than make crud pages. This will end as copilot makes lovely .reduce and linq art from a human language prompt.

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

#792

Post by frankacter »

bamboozled wrote: post #742
concordDance wrote: post #669

Earlier quoted context omitted.

A good rule of thumb is if you're worried about code being copied you really shouldn't put it on github. Even if most large companies respect copyright, that small studio in Russia certainly won't.

How would the small studio access my private repo ?

They wouldn't. If you have it in a private repository and you are the only one with access to it, you'll likely not run into this issue.

From other comments, this developers "private" code was found in 30k+ public repositories with public attribution which is what created this issue.

Presumably your private code is not also present or leaked to any public repositories.

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

#793

Post by tablespoon »

robertlagrant wrote: post #788
tablespoon wrote: post #703

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> But - the only reason anyone makes money (other than tax money) is because they're useful to someone else. Almost all of the clothing industry companies make money from large numbers of people buying their clothes. So they are useful to us. No, that's not true. Capitalists make money from simply owning things , not because they're necessarily doing anything useful.

> No, that's not true. Capitalists make money from simply owning things, not because they're necessarily doing anything useful. Can you elaborate on this? How can I become a capitalist so all my possessions start earning me money?

> Can you elaborate on this? How can I become a capitalist so all my possessions start earning me money?

Capitalists make money from simply owning things, but that doesn't imply in the slightest that everything that can be owned produces income.

The classic example is a landlord: he collects income because he simply owns the land others need or want to use. He doesn't necessarily have do any work that's useful to anyone else, not even maintenance or "capital allocation."

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

#794

Post by matkoniecz »

rtkwe wrote: post #274
matkoniecz wrote: post #251

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-…

> Left: “Girl with a Pearl Earring, by Johannes Vermeer” by Stable Diffusion Right: Girl with a Pearl Earring by Johannes Vermeer Even that if done by a person as far as I understand it would not constitute a copyright infringement. It's a separate work mimicking Vermeer's original. The closest real world equivalent I can think of is probably the Obama Hope case by AP vs Shepard Fairy but that settled out of court so…

It is a clear case of derivative work (see also https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Derivative_works - internal docs, but their explanation of copyright status tends to be well done)

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

#795

Post by matkoniecz »

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.

It is a clear case of derivative work (see also https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Derivative_works - internal docs, but their explanation of copyright status tends to be well done)

This specific one would not be a problem, but doing it with a still copyrighted work would be.

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

#797

Post by robertlagrant »

tablespoon wrote: post #793
robertlagrant wrote: post #788

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> No, that's not true. Capitalists make money from simply owning things, not because they're necessarily doing anything useful. Can you elaborate on this? How can I become a capitalist so all my possessions start earning me money?

> Can you elaborate on this? How can I become a capitalist so all my possessions start earning me money? Capitalists make money from simply owning things, but that doesn't imply in the slightest that everything that can be owned produces income. The classic example is a landlord: he collects income because he simply owns the land others need or want to use. He doesn't necessarily have do any work that's useful to any…

If the property isn't useful, then why is anyone renting it?

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

#798

Post by tpoacher »

I have now moved all my public github projects onto sourcehut, and replaced them on github with public notices explaining why (i.e. this whole copilot saga).

Yes I know that presumably that doesn't make them safer from a copilot visibility point of view ... but I had to do something.

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

#799

Post by ShamelessC »

drran wrote: post #570
ShamelessC wrote: post #266

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having worked for a couple of big companies with IT, you should know they are effectively all breaking the law already in this regard (except for maybe hardware companies) because it’s basically impossible to enforce and no one cares. The best way to make sure your code isn’t copied is not to publish it.

Can you name one of these big, rich, and careless companies, please?

Uh, vaguely? [Someone who isn't me] is aware of this happening at an american retailer.

It basically happens like this:

"Oh this code solves our problems and has a nice community around it for network effects!"

**developers proceed to adopt codebase without checking the license**

**months later**

"Oh, huh this license has some interesting language in it..."

Then the employee doesn't mention it; because the risk of having to re-do a bunch of work feels higher than the risk of getting in trouble for violating a license. Basically, unless it's Oracle; people just kinda shrug it off as a "wontfix".

My whole thing is that any system depending on people to read and follow a license is quite flawed in terms of enforcement, and is largely designed specifically so that powerful encumbents can make claims, not individual developers.

Laws have to be enforced or people will ignore them. If there's no practical way to enforce a law that doesn't involve violating freedoms - you're kinda fucked.

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

#800

Post by ShamelessC »

jrm4 wrote: post #772
ShamelessC wrote: post #260

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Define progress. Good luck.

I mean, I don't have to do it alone. There's this thing called "the law" that's put in a little work on this :)

Fair enough; from a legal framework that's a highly practical way to move forward. I don't think many people like to point at the current status quo, with all its flaws, and immediately think "the courts will help me!"; but you did mention you are a lawyer and I respect that you are working in the bounds of what is possible rather than what is ideal.
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