https://githubcopilotlitigation.com/

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14<main><nav class="topnav"><div hyphens="none"><a href="/">GitHub Copilot litigation</a></div><div hyphens="none"><a href="case-updates.html">case updates</a></div><div hyphens="none"><a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/github-copilot-intellectual-property-litigation">get updates by email</a></div><div hyphens="none"><a href="#contacting-us">contact legal team</a></div></nav><h1 link="false">We’ve filed a law­suit chal­leng­ing GitHub Copi­lot, an AI prod­uct that relies on unprece­dented open-source soft­ware piracy.<br/><strong>Because AI needs to be fair &amp; eth­i­cal for every­one.</strong></h1><p class="datestrip" id="22-11-03"><a href="#22-11-03" style="color: inherit">Novem­ber 3, 2022</a></p><p>Hello. This is <a href="//matthewbutterick.com">Matthew Butterick</a>. On Octo­ber 17 <a href="//githubcopilotinvestigation.com">I told you</a> that I had teamed up with the <a href="https://www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/">amaz­ingly excel­lent</a> class-action lit­i­ga­tors <a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/attorneys/joseph-r-saveri/">Joseph Saveri</a>, <a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/attorneys/cadio-zirpoli">Cadio Zir­poli</a>, and <a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/attorneys/travis-manfredi">Travis Man­fredi</a> at the <a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/github-copilot-intellectual-property-investigation">Joseph Saveri Law Firm</a> to inves­ti­gate GitHub Copi­lot.</p><p>Today, we’ve filed a class-action law­suit in <a href="//www.cand.uscourts.gov/">US fed­eral court</a> in San Fran­cisco, CA on behalf of a pro­posed class of pos­si­bly mil­lions of GitHub users. We are chal­leng­ing the legal­ity of <a href="//github.com/features/copilot">GitHub Copi­lot</a> (and a related prod­uct, <a href="//openai.com/blog/openai-codex/">OpenAI Codex</a>, which pow­ers Copi­lot). The suit has been filed against a set of defen­dants that includes <a href="//github.com/about">GitHub</a>, <a href="//www.microsoft.com/en-us/about">Microsoft</a> (owner of GitHub), and <a href="//openai.com/">OpenAI</a>.</p><p>Today’s fil­ings:</p><ul><li><p><a href="pdf/06823/1-0-github_complaint.pdf">Class-action com­plaint</a></p></li><li><p><a href="pdf/06823/1-1-github_complaint_appendix_a.pdf">Class-action com­plaint: Appen­dix A</a></p></li><li><p><a href="pdf/06823/1-2-github_complaint_exhibit_1.pdf">Class-action com­plaint: Exhibit 1</a></p></li></ul><p>By train­ing their AI sys­tems on pub­lic GitHub repos­i­to­ries (though based on their pub­lic state­ments, pos­si­bly much more) we con­tend that the defen­dants have vio­lated the legal rights of a vast num­ber of cre­ators who posted code or other work under cer­tain open-source licenses on GitHub. Which licenses? A set of 11 pop­u­lar open-source licenses that all require attri­bu­tion of the author’s name and copy­right, includ­ing the <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/MIT">MIT license</a>, the <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/GPL-3.0">GPL</a>, and the <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses/Apache-2.0">Apache license</a>. (These are enu­mer­ated in the <a href="pdf/06823/1-1-github_complaint_appendix_a.pdf">appen­dix to the com­plaint</a>.)</p><p>In addi­tion to vio­lat­ing the attri­bu­tion require­ments of these licenses, we con­tend that the defen­dants have vio­lated:</p><ul><li><p>GitHub’s own <a href="https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/github-terms/github-terms-of-service">terms of ser­vice</a> and <a href="https://docs.github.com/en/site-policy/privacy-policies/github-privacy-statement">pri­vacy poli­cies</a>;</p></li><li><p><a href="https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/17/1202">DMCA § 1202</a>, which for­bids the removal of copy­right-man­age­ment infor­ma­tion;</p></li><li><p>the <a href="https://oag.ca.gov/privacy/ccpa">Cal­i­for­nia Con­sumer Pri­vacy Act</a>;</p></li><li><p>and other laws giv­ing rise to related legal claims.</p></li></ul><p>In the weeks ahead, we will likely amend this com­plaint to add other par­ties and claims.</p><p>This is the first step in what will be a long jour­ney. As far as we know, this is the first class-action case in the US chal­leng­ing the train­ing and out­put of AI sys­tems. It will not be the last. AI sys­tems are not exempt from the law. Those who cre­ate and oper­ate these sys­tems must remain account­able. If com­pa­nies like Microsoft, GitHub, and OpenAI choose to dis­re­gard the law, they should not expect that we the pub­lic will sit still. AI needs to be fair &amp; eth­i­cal for every­one. If it’s not, then it can never achieve its vaunted aims of ele­vat­ing human­ity. It will just become another way for the priv­i­leged few to profit from the work of the many.</p><p>We plan to update this web­site reg­u­larly dur­ing the lit­i­ga­tion. Please join <a href="//www.saverilawfirm.com/our-cases/github-copilot-intellectual-property-litigation">our email list</a> for the lat­est.</p><p class="datestrip" id="22-11-10"><a href="#22-11-10" style="color: inherit">Novem­ber 10, 2022</a></p><p>We’ve filed a sec­ond class-action law­suit in <a href="//www.cand.uscourts.gov/">US fed­eral court</a> in San Fran­cisco, CA on behalf of two addi­tional plain­tiffs. The defen­dants and claims are oth­er­wise sim­i­lar to the ini­tial com­plaint filed on Novem­ber 3.</p><p>Today’s fil­ings:</p><ul><li><p><a href="pdf/07074/1-0-github_complaint.pdf">Class-action com­plaint</a></p></li><li><p><a href="pdf/07074/1-1-github_complaint_appendix_a.pdf">Class-action com­plaint: Appen­dix A</a></p></li><li><p><a href="pdf/07074/1-2-github_complaint_exhibit_1.pdf">Class-action com­plaint: Exhibit 1</a></p></li></ul><h2 id="contacting-us"><a href="#contacting-us">Con­tact­ing us</a></h2><p>If you’re a mem­ber of the press or the pub­lic with other ques­tions about this case or related top­ics, con­tact <a href="mailto:[email protected]">github_inquiries@saver­i­law­firm.com</a>. (Though please don’t send con­fi­den­tial or priv­i­leged infor­ma­tion.) More infor­ma­tion about the back­ground of this case is <a href="//githubcopilotinvestigation.com/">avail­able here</a>.</p><div class="warningbox"><div class="inner">This web page is infor­ma­tional. Gen­eral prin­ci­ples of law are dis­cussed. But nei­ther Matthew Butterick nor any­one at the Joseph Saveri Law Firm is <em>your</em> law­yer, and <strong>noth­ing here is offered as legal advice</strong>. Ref­er­ences to copy­right per­tain to US law. This page will be updated as new infor­ma­tion becomes avail­able.</div></div><div style="padding-top:2rem"> </div></main>
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