zlacker

>>davidg+(OP)
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.

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

>>yjftsj+Yg
I'm not really sure what I think about this. How responsible should Microsoft be for someone's badly licensed code on their platform? If they somehow had the ability to ban projects using stolen snippets of code, I don't think I'd dare to host my hobby projects there.

If you can't trust that the code in a project is compatible with the license of the project then the only option I see is that copilot cannot exist.

I love free software and whatnot, but I have a feeling this situation would've been quite different if copilot was made by the free software community and accidentally trained on some non free code..

>>CapsAd+Qi
> How responsible should Microsoft be for someone's badly licensed code on their platform?

That's actually a very real problem that mega money has been spent on. The same legal problem appears on sites like YouTube around fair use and copyright. In terms of fair use that doesn't apply here see:

https://softwareengineering.stackexchange.com/questions/1217...

Regardless platforms are partially responsible for the content that their users upload into them. Most try to absolve themselves of this responsibility with their terms of service but legally that's just not possible.

Personally I'm an advocate for fair use but I'm also an advocate for strong copyright laws and their enforcement. In the short time the internet has been available to most people in the world there is a habit of stealing others work and claiming it as your own. Quite often this is for some financial gain.