Microsoft Sued for Open-Source Piracy via GitHub Copilot

plat · Nov 5, 2022

Programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick has sued Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI, alleging that GitHub's Copilot violates the terms of open-source licenses and infringes the rights of programmers.

"It appears Microsoft is profiting from others' work by disregarding the conditions of the underlying open-source licenses and other legal requirements," comments Joseph Saveri, the law firm representing Butterick in the litigation.

The complaint was submitted to the U.S. District Court of the Northern District of California, demanding the approval of statutory damages of $9,000,000,000.

Personal note: Microsoft acquired GitHub back in 2018 for 7.5 billion USD.

Stopspying · Nov 6, 2022

plat said:
Personal note: Microsoft acquired GitHub back in 2018 for 7.5 billion USD.

A thought crossed my mind at the time of the aquisition which was curious about Microsofts ability to respect open-source principles. I'm not judging before this case is proved either way, this probably reflects my wider cynicism about 'big tech'/corporations than anything else. With so much in the way of resources being thrown at AI there is probably a high chance of different developments overlapping and at least appearing to duplicate the work of others. The $9,000,000,000 demand suggests there might just be something in this case.

Brahman · Nov 26, 2022

Zero Knowledge · Nov 26, 2022

These youtube videos are just platforms for so called 'creators' to try and sell memberships/subscriptions/merchandise. Talk about amateur hour.

plat · Nov 27, 2022

Zero Knowledge: "

These youtube videos are just platforms for so called 'creators' to try and sell memberships/subscriptions/merchandise. Talk about amateur hour.

Actually, there was something written about this open-source code issue recently. The video is legit, imo.