DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering [LWN.net]

DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering

Posted Jun 25, 2022 1:00 UTC (Sat) by gerdesj (subscriber, #5446)
In reply to: DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering by NYKevin
Parent article: DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering

"A lot of engineers have very strange ideas about how the GPL works."

Quite. Also, many putative authorities on the GPL seem to forget that there are many legal systems. If you are going to dive in and be authoritative on he GPL then you really should present an argument that works for all legal systems that the GPL attempts to work within. Quite a job!

Legal is as legal does: Some legal systems have a concept of "reasonable" or what a "reasonable" person would do and I think that is what the GPL is riffing off. There's also the concept of being able to "quietly enjoy [something]". I'm a Brit. so my local legal system informs my knowledge here. Not all legal systems work like that.

I think it is fair to say that we all have strange ideas about how the GPL works. There's no need to call out end users.

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DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering

Posted Jun 25, 2022 11:47 UTC (Sat) by Wol (subscriber, #4433) [Link]

> Quite. Also, many putative authorities on the GPL seem to forget that there are many legal systems.

And far too many authorities read what they want to see, not what's actually there. I've sure been guilty of that. I think my knowledge of the GPL now is pretty good, precisely because I've had plenty of people call me out on my mistakes.

How many "experts" have NOT been through that learning experience? The majority of them?

Cheers,
Wol

DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering

Posted Jun 26, 2022 3:22 UTC (Sun) by gdt (subscriber, #6284) [Link]

The deeper point about differing copyright laws is not so much interpretation of copyright licenses, but the distinction between "fair use" and "fair dealing".

Copilot claims its actions are fair use, and therefore the license is irrelevant. However in fair dealing jurisdictions Copilot's use of the program source must either meet the copyright license or one of the black-letter list of allowed uses in the fair dealing exceptions of that juridiction's copyright law.