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by Karrot_Kream 1791 days ago
> The fact that people feel like they can do anything without the common courtesy of asking for permission is troubling to me that we've lost something as a society.

I see this sentiment a lot in FOSS spaces but I don't really understand why. The role of judicial process _isn't_ to provide a guiding moral philosophy around social organization. Depending on the government in question that's either a role of government functions or isn't something that should be guided at all. The role of law often (and yes, not in all governments, but at least in the US) is to offer a contract between the state and the individual.

I understand the potential for abuse here in using Copilot to regurgitate licensed works without adhering to the terms of the work's license, but I'm not fluent enough in law to know if this is illegal or not. Calling out and specifically applying strict limits this practice is certainly something I'm sympathetic to, and I'm very curious to see what the courts come up with. But swayed by a moral argument I am not.
1 comments
dylan604 1791 days ago
In the realm of FOSS, I feel like it's not the same comparisons. The FOSS devs created the work, released that work with the express knowing that someone else could update/modify that work. Writing/art/videos are rarely released with copyright that allows this kind of modification. That's a huge difference. There are some FOSS releases that allow people to use for personal/private use while restricting commercial use. This is closer to the books/movies type of scenario.
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Karrot_Kream 1791 days ago
I mean sure, but these are both legally defined works with licenses that govern their use. The difference is in the style of license. FOSS doesn't get a special moral valence because individuals are authors and they offer their work for editing and remixing under narrow circumstances. I mean, if Jeff Bezos today were to release code he wrote by hand with GPLv3 and were to cry foul over Copilot, I doubt anyone would care (or he'd get made fun of online.) Why does FOSS get treated so differently?
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