Post Syndicated from original https://lwn.net/Articles/898772/

Drew DeVault takes
issue with GitHub’s “Copilot” offering and the licensing issues that it raises:

GitHub’s Copilot is trained on software governed by these terms,
and it fails to uphold them, and enables customers to accidentally
fail to uphold these terms themselves. Some argue about the risks
of a “copyleft surprise”, wherein someone incorporates a GPL
licensed work into their product and is surprised to find that they
are obligated to release their product under the terms of the GPL
as well. Copilot institutionalizes this risk and any user who
wishes to use it to develop non-free software would be well-advised
not to do so, else they may find themselves legally liable to
uphold these terms, perhaps ultimately being required to release
their works under the terms of a license which is undesirable for
their goals.

Chances are that many people will disagree with DeVault’s reasoning, but
this is an issue that merits some discussion still.