COURT RULES IN FAVOR OF TECH GIANTS, THROWS OUT MAJORITY OF CLAIMS IN GitHub Copilot Copyright Lawsuit
In a shocking decision that has left many in the tech community reeling, a California judge has tossed nearly all of the claims brought against GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI in a copyright lawsuit filed in 2022. The lawsuit accused the companies of violating copyright laws by allowing the AI-powered GitHub Copilot coding assistant to train on developers’ work.
TECH GIANTS WALK FREE, BUT DEVELOPERS FIGHT ON
The original lawsuit made 22 claims against the trio, accusing them of violating copyright laws by allowing GitHub Copilot to train on developers’ work. However, Judge Jon Tigar has now dismissed 20 of the claims, leaving only two standing. The two remaining claims accuse the companies of violating an open-source license and breaching contract.
DEVELOPERS CLAIM GitHub Copilot VIOLATES DMCA, BUT COURT DISMISSES CLAIMS
The lawsuit also accused GitHub of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) by suggesting code without proper attribution. However, Judge Tigar’s ruling suggests that GitHub’s duplication detection filter, which users can toggle on to "detect and suppress" Copilot suggestions matching public code found on GitHub, does not violate the DMCA.
COURT RULES AGAINST DEVELOPERS’ CLAIM THAT GitHub Copilot "MEMORIZES" CODE
The lawsuit also cited a study that shows how AI models can "memorize" and regurgitate parts of their training data, which could potentially include copyrighted code. However, Judge Tigar determined that the code GitHub allegedly copied from developers was not similar enough to their original work, and that the study did not provide sufficient evidence to support the claim.
LITIGATION WILL CONTINUE, BUT FOR NOW, TECH GIANTS CELEBRATE VICTORY
While the lawsuit is not over, the court’s decision is a major blow to the developers’ claims. The case will likely continue with the remaining two claims, which accuse the companies of violating an open-source license and breaching contract. For now, GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI can celebrate their victory, but the tech giants will likely continue to face scrutiny and criticism from the developer community.
