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by dkarras 1813 days ago
How do you know that when you write a simplish function for example, it is not identical to some GPL code somewhere? "Line by line" code does not exist anywhere in the neural network. It doesn't store or reference data in that way. Every character of code is in some sense "synthesized". If anything, this exposes the fragility of our concept of "copyright" in the realm of computer programs and source code. It has always been ridiculous. GPL is just another license that leverages the copyright framework (the enforcement of GPL cannot exist outside such a copyright framework after all) so in such weird "edge cases" GPL is bound to look stupid just like any other scheme. Remember that GPL also forbids "derivative" works to be relicensed (with a less "permissive" one). It is safe to say that you are writing code that is close enough to be considered "derivative" to some GPL code somewhere pretty much every day, and you can't possibly prove that you didn't cheat. So the whole framework collapses in the end anyways.
1 comments

> How do you know that when you write a simplish function for example, it is not identical to some GPL code somewhere?

I don't, but then I didn't go first look at the GPL code, memorize it completely, do some brain math, and then write it out character by character.