Microsoft and OpenAI Ask to Dismiss Copyright Suit Over AI Copilot

Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI have asked the court to dismiss the class-action lawsuit accusing them of copyright infringement in creating the Copilot AI tool. According to The Verge.

In two filings with the U.S. District Court in San Francisco, the companies said the allegations in the suit were not accurate.

Launched in 2021, Copilot uses OpenAI technology to generate and offer lines of code directly in the editor. Trained on publicly available GitHub repositories, the tool soon drew concerns about potential copyright infringement.

In October 2022, programmer and lawyer Matthew Butterick joined with the law firm of Joseph Saveri to file the proposed class-action. The plaintiffs alleged that the tool was based on “software piracy on an unprecedented scale.”

Later, Butterick and his legal team filed a similar suit on behalf of two anonymous developers.

Microsoft and GitHub said the complaint “fails due to internal deficiencies: lack of harm and substantiated claims.” OpenAI argue that the plaintiffs “bring numerous claims that do not address rights violations.”

According to representatives, the plaintiffs rely on “hypothetical events.” The plaintiffs do not describe how the tool harmed them personally.

“Copilot does not copy anything from open-source code. Rather, Copilot helps developers by generating lines based on the aggregate of knowledge obtained from publicly available repositories,” said Microsoft and GitHub.

The companies also accused the plaintiffs of “undermining the principles of open source software,” seeking in relation to freely distributed code “a court injunction and a multibillion-dollar windfall.”

A hearing on the motion to dismiss is scheduled for May 2023.

In January, Microsoft announced multibillion-dollar investments in OpenAI.

In the same month, artists filed suit against Stability AI and Midjourney for training their algorithms on their images.

Microsoft and Github Motion to Dismiss by ForkLog AI on Scribd

Openai Motion to Dismiss by ForkLog AI on Scribd

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