> Letting github host and display the code is compatible with open source licenses but is very much different from letting third parties incorporate that code into non-open codebases.
> GitHub TOS can only possibly give them authorization from those directly uploading code to GitHub. They don’t give github any additional license for code that was uploaded by a someone else (for example a mirror bot) becose that someone does not have the rights to give out that license.
GitHub’s terms already require that uploaders have copyright authorization, or that machine uploaders are doing automated tasks exclusively. Letting a machine upload someone else’s new and copyright code that the account owner doesn’t have copyrights to appears to violate GitHub’s terms. “the owner of the Account is ultimately responsible for the machine's actions” https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...
> even if they write in the TOS that they can do whatever they want it does not mean that they can actually legally do whatever they want
Yes, correct, I completely agree. Asking for people to agree to ‘indemnify and hold harmless’ over the site’s features is standard language and not really a stretch, it doesn’t amount to Github doing whatever they want. That language is already in the terms.
What is the summary of your comment, what are you trying to say at a high level? We can debate the fine points, but if you are trying to say that my speculative suggestion was crappy and Github has other ways to make copilot legal, then I agree. If you’re trying to say that Github has no legal way to make copilot available, then I disagree.
There is already language in the terms that might cover copilot. Section D.4 I linked to above includes this:
“This license [that you grant us] includes the right to do things like copy it [your content] to our database and make backups; show it to you and other users; parse it into a search index or otherwise analyze it on our servers; share it with other users; and perform it, in case Your Content is something like music or video.“
The Copilot FAQ also mentions they have IP filters and actively prevent reciting large portions of anyone’s code, it explicitly mentions a threshold of 150 characters.
Agree completely. It’s still a fact that GitHub’s Terms provide a separate license for Github. See section D.4 https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...
> GitHub TOS can only possibly give them authorization from those directly uploading code to GitHub. They don’t give github any additional license for code that was uploaded by a someone else (for example a mirror bot) becose that someone does not have the rights to give out that license.
GitHub’s terms already require that uploaders have copyright authorization, or that machine uploaders are doing automated tasks exclusively. Letting a machine upload someone else’s new and copyright code that the account owner doesn’t have copyrights to appears to violate GitHub’s terms. “the owner of the Account is ultimately responsible for the machine's actions” https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-t...
> even if they write in the TOS that they can do whatever they want it does not mean that they can actually legally do whatever they want
Yes, correct, I completely agree. Asking for people to agree to ‘indemnify and hold harmless’ over the site’s features is standard language and not really a stretch, it doesn’t amount to Github doing whatever they want. That language is already in the terms.
What is the summary of your comment, what are you trying to say at a high level? We can debate the fine points, but if you are trying to say that my speculative suggestion was crappy and Github has other ways to make copilot legal, then I agree. If you’re trying to say that Github has no legal way to make copilot available, then I disagree.
There is already language in the terms that might cover copilot. Section D.4 I linked to above includes this:
“This license [that you grant us] includes the right to do things like copy it [your content] to our database and make backups; show it to you and other users; parse it into a search index or otherwise analyze it on our servers; share it with other users; and perform it, in case Your Content is something like music or video.“
The Copilot FAQ also mentions they have IP filters and actively prevent reciting large portions of anyone’s code, it explicitly mentions a threshold of 150 characters.