DeVault: GitHub Copilot and open source laundering

Clarification: Copyright is path-independent, provided that a path actually exists. In theory, you do have to show that the defendant had access to the copyrighted work, and that this somehow affected the contents of the allegedly infringing work. But in practice, this is a very weak requirement. You don't have to make specific claims about exactly what the defendant did or the path they took from A to B. You just have to show that the path probably exists. OTOH, if the defendant can plausibly argue lack of access (e.g. "Your code was proprietary, and I couldn't read it even if I wanted to"), then that is a valid defense to copyright infringement (provided, of course, that the finder of fact believes this argument).