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Microsoft is trying to pull the legal equivalent of the crypto bro strat of "Well, it can't be undone now, cuz it's on the blockchain."
Get so many people using your LLM that even if you did technically violate millions of copyrights to make it, it's so foundational to so many companies' processes that no judge would have the courage to stop it.
What kind of "protection" could they possibly offer when someone sues because Copilot straight out copied their code because it doesn't know any better?
I really don't understand what's Microsoft's master plan here. It's very weird for a software company to undermine copyright.
If it's ok for Copilot to pirate code it must also be ok for everybody else to pirate Microsoft products.
I think they’re gambling that either the legal precedent will end up in favor of generative AI being exempt from copyright, or that they can out spent anyone who would want to take them on.
Sounds like Microsoft is trying to engage in champerty as a means of establishing beneficial case law (or avoiding the opposite) because government regulations could devalue their investments in the AI field.
This is the best summary I could come up with:
On Thursday, Microsoft announced that it will provide legal protection for customers who are sued for copyright infringement over content generated by the company's AI systems.
Microsoft has heavily invested in AI through products like GitHub Copilot and Bing Chat that can generate original code, text, and images on demand.
By offering legal protection, Microsoft aims to give customers confidence in deploying its AI systems without worrying about potential copyright issues.
The policy covers damages and legal fees, providing customers with an added layer of protection as generative AI sees rapid adoption across the tech industry.
Under the new commitment, Microsoft will pay any legal damages for customers using Copilot, Bing Chat, and other AI services as long as they use built-in guardrails.
Last November, the Joseph Saveri Law Firm filed a class-action lawsuit against Microsoft and OpenAI over GitHub Copilot's alleged copyright violations that arose from scraping publicly available code repositories.
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