zlacker

The way I'm reading your reply seems like sophistry, so I expect I'm misunderstanding you.

Scenario 1: Copilot, operating as an IDE plugin, placed the suggestion directly into the text. To accept the suggestion, the engineer hit save.

Scenario 2: Copilot, placed its suggestion in an external file. The engineer copy/pasted the suggestion verbatim into their IDE, then hit save.

These don't seem as though they materially affect the situation. Regardless, the downstream user who somehow brought the copyrighted code into their codebase (which they subsequently redistribute) is infringing.

This theoretical case where Copilot is not involved and the user synthesizes something on their own is not germane. Copilot is involved.

What are you folks getting at? That Microsoft is in the clear? That the end user is in the clear? That "I'm just making suggestions" is akin to "I'm just asking questions" and absolves the suggester of liability? I don't get it.

>>rectan+(OP)
Thanks for giving me the benefit of the doubt, but I do not deserve it in this case. I misread what I was responding to and my response was off the mark.

You're right to be confused, and my reply can be ignored as off-topic for the thread i'm in.

>>TheDon+sY1
That's generous of you, since you were not alone. It seems as though I could have done a better job of emphasizing from the get-go that I thought infringement by the end user was the key point, rather than infringement by Microsoft.