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0 pointsGibbon11mo ago0 comments

One could argue that Co-Authored by Copilot means 'not under copyright'

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6 comments · 3 top-level

Aurornis1mo ago· 2 in thread

The headline literally says the line is being inserted regardless of usage, which makes it easy to argue that it’s entirely meaningless as an indicator of AI use at all.

Gibbon1OP1mo ago

If you can get AI to write your slop is it really socially valuable enough to justify copyright?

Even before AI copyrighting software was questionable.

saghm1mo ago

The point they're making is that this happens even in code where AI didn't write it. One of the comments on the page is from someone mentioning they have all Copilot and AI features turned off, and it still added this to their commits. You can't conclude anything about whether AI could write it from the presence of this in a commit message.

VanTheBrand1mo ago· 1 in thread

Yeah the current guidance from US copyright office is that if it were said to be solely authored by copilot it would not be eligible for copyright. If it were said to be solely authored by human A (who happened to use co-pilot) the elements and arrangement of it not generated by co-pilot would be copyrightable. I’m not sure the copyright office has released guidance on attempting to register AI as a co-author I assume the registration would be rejected but you’d be able to re-submit as sole Human author.

graemep1mo ago

The Thaler case settled part of that: an LLM cannot be an author.

The guidance says its case by and case I can find no indication separation of elements is critical. Its more how closely you guide and correct the AI https://www.copyright.gov/ai/Copyright-and-Artificial-Intell...

You can go by US guidance if you only distribute the work in the US. Otherwise you need to he aware this varies elsewhere.

kaashif1mo ago

One would be completely wrong.

AI is a tool that may make copyright violations more likely, but whether the output violates copyright is a property of the output, not how it was produced.

If you copy and paste leaked closed source code or if your AI produces it verbatim, you're in trouble either way. Change it up a bit and you're fine in practice in both cases.

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