Will the GitHub Copilot Litigation Succeed?
A law firm has filed a class action suit against GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft over the GitHub Copilot code completion software: https://githubcopilotlitigation.com The key question is whether training a model and using it requires a licence to the training data. By "Copilot" here I mean the current version of Copilot and any sucessors that are also trained without licenses to the underlying data. This question resolves YES if, after appeals, the final ruling is that Copilot in normal operation requires a license to the training data or if Github voluntarily withdraws Copilot. It resolves NO if the ruling is that it does not require a license or if the suit is dropped. It resolves N/A if the court doesn't rule on this claim (ex: dismissal for lack of standing) or if the suit is still unresolved in five years. If the suit is settled, it resolves YES if Copilot stops operating within six months of the settlement, and NO if it doesn't.
