Parts of Debian dismiss AI-contributions policy

I hesitate to wade into a thread that looks like it has long since become unproductive, but at this point, I think it might be helpful to remember that copyright is a "color" in the sense described at https://ansuz.sooke.bc.ca/entry/23.

Unfortunately, while that article is very well-written and generally illuminates the right way to think about verbatim copying, it can be unintentionally misleading when we're talking about derivative works. The "colors" involved in verbatim copying are relatively straightforward - either X is a copy of Y, or it is not, and this is purely a matter of how you created X. But when we get to derivative works, there are really two* separate components that need to be considered:

- Access (a "color" of the bits, describing whether the defendant could have looked at the alleged original).
- Similarity (a function of the bits, and not a color)

The problem is, if you've been following copyright law for some time, you might be used to working in exclusively one mode of analysis at a time (i.e. either the "bits have color" mode of analysis or the "bits are colorless" mode of analysis). The problem is, access is a colored property, and similarity is a colorless property. You need to be prepared to combine both modalities, or at least to perform each of them sequentially, in order to reason correctly about derivative works. You cannot insist that "it must be one or the other," because as a matter of law, it's both.

* Technically, there is also the third component of originality, but that only matters if you want to copyright the derivative work, which is an entirely different discussion altogether. That one is also a "color" which depends on how much human creativity has gone into the work.