Thus, in addition to the license rights of open source coders, Butterick states in the charges against Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI that Copilot violates the following elements:
- GitHub Terms of Service and Privacy Policy;
- DMCA Section 1202 prohibiting the removal of copyright information;
- California Consumer Protection Law.
” Every time Copilot delivers a line, the tool violates DMCA Section 1202 on three levels (attribution, copyright information, and license terms). If every Copilot user receives even one disputed line, then Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI are violating the DMCA 3.6 billion times Butterick says in his complaint.
The man is demanding minimum compensation of $2,500 per violation. Based on the estimated number of violations, the total damages amount to a whopping $9 billion.
Microsoft and GitHub were asked about this loud complaint. Only GitHub came up with the following response: ” We have been committed to responsible innovation with Copilot since the beginning. We will continue to develop the product to best serve developers around the world “.
Legal proceedings therefore follow.