Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI Face Legal Dispute Over AI-Based Programming Tool Copilot

Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI are currently the subjects of a legal dispute over the AI-based programming tool, Copilot. The case was initiated by a group of open-source coders led by programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick, who filed the complaint in the U.S. Court of Northern California last month.

Copilot is a for-profit tool developed by Microsoft that uses AI to automatically complete lines of code. The AI within the tool was trained using data from billions of open-source works hosted on GitHub, which was acquired by Microsoft in 2018. The open-source licenses used by Copilot, such as GPL, Apache, and MIT, require that the author be credited for their work under U.S. law. However, when Copilot completes a line of code, it does not include attribution.

In addition to this issue, some lines of code taken over by Copilot have been found to leak secret elements, making them public without the consent of their creator, which has caused outrage among open-source coders, including Butterick. Butterick argues in his complaint against Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI that Copilot violates licensing rights and Section 1202 of the DMCA, which covers attribution, copyright information, and license terms. He is seeking a minimum of $2,500 in damages for each violation, which could add up to a total of $9 billion based on the estimated number of violations.

Microsoft and GitHub have been asked about this high-stakes lawsuit. Only GitHub responded, stating “We have been committed to responsible innovation with Copilot since its inception. We will continue to evolve the product to best serve developers around the world”. The legal case is ongoing.