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article-seirdy-an-experiment-to-test-github-copilot-s-legality.mw (11221B) |
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1 .SH seirdy |
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2 An experiment to test GitHub Copilot's legality |
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3 .2C 157v |
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4 . |
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5 .QP |
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6 This article was posted on 2022-07-01 by Rohan Kumar |
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7 .FS |
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8 https://seirdy.one/posts/2022/07/01/experiment-copilot-legality/ |
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9 gemini://seirdy.one/posts/2022/07/01/experiment-copilot-legality/index.g… |
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10 .FE |
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11 and is now republished on this newspaper, with permission (CC-BY-SA 4.0). |
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12 . |
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13 . |
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14 .IP "Preface" |
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15 . |
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16 .PP |
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17 I am not a lawyer. |
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18 This post is satirical commentary on: |
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19 . |
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20 .IP \(bu |
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21 The absurdity of Microsoft and OpenAI's legal justification for GitHub C… |
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22 . |
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23 .IP \(bu |
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24 The oversimplifications people use to argue against GitHub Copilot (I do… |
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25 . |
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26 .IP \(bu |
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27 The relationship between capital and legal outcomes. |
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28 . |
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29 .IP \(bu |
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30 How civil cases seem like sporting events where people “win” or “l… |
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31 . |
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32 .PP |
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33 In the process, I intentionally misrepresent how the judicial system wor… |
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34 I portray the system the way people like to imagine it works. |
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35 Please don't make any important legal decisions based on anything I say. |
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36 . |
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37 .PP |
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38 The only section you should take seriously is “Context: |
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39 the relevant technologies”. |
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40 . |
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41 . |
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42 .IP "Introduction" |
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43 . |
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44 .PP |
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45 GitHub is enabling copyleft violation \fBat scale\fR with Copilot. |
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46 GitHub Copilot encourages people to make derivative works of source code… |
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47 This facilitates the creation of permissively-licensed or proprietary de… |
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48 . |
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49 .PP |
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50 Unfortunately, challenging Microsoft (GitHub's parent company) in court … |
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51 their legal budget probably ensures their victory, and they likely alrea… |
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52 How can we determine Copilot's legality on a level playing field? We can… |
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53 . |
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54 .PP |
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55 A chat with Matt Campbell about a speech synthesizer gave me a horrible … |
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56 I think I know a way to find out if GitHub Copilot is legal: |
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57 we could use its legal justification against another software project wi… |
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58 Specifically, against a speech synthesizer. |
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59 The outcome of our actions could set a legal precedent to determine the … |
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60 . |
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61 .PP |
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62 Context: the relevant technologies |
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63 Let's cover the technologies and actors at play before I start my evil m… |
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64 . |
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65 . |
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66 .IP "Exhibit A: GitHub Copilot" |
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67 . |
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68 .PP |
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69 GitHub Copilot is a predictive autocompletion service for writing softwa… |
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70 It's powered by OpenAI Codex, |
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71 .FS |
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72 https://openai.com/blog/openai-codex/ |
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73 .FE |
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74 a language model based on GPT-3. |
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75 .FS |
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76 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/GPT-3 |
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77 .FE |
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78 It was trained using the source code of public repositories hosted on Gi… |
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79 In response to a Request for Comments from the US Patent and Trademark O… |
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80 .FS |
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81 See Comment Regarding Request for Comments on Intellectual Property Prot… |
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82 for Artificial Intelligence Innovation submitted by OpenAI to the USPTO. |
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83 https://www.uspto.gov/sites/default/files/documents/OpenAI_RFC-84-FR-581… |
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84 .FE |
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85 . |
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86 .PP |
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87 Many of the code snippets it suggests are exact copies of source code fr… |
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88 For an example, see this tweet: |
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89 I don't want to say anything but that's not the right license Mr Copilot. |
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90 .FS |
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91 https://nitter.net/mitsuhiko/status/1410886329924194309 |
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92 https://twitter.com/mitsuhiko/status/1410886329924194309 |
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93 .FE |
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94 by Armin Ronacher |
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95 .FS |
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96 https://lucumr.pocoo.org/about/ |
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97 .FE |
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98 It contains a screen recording of Copilot suggesting this Quake code. |
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99 .FS |
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100 https://github.com/id-Software/Quake-III-Arena/blob/master/code/game/q_m… |
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101 At line 552 |
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102 .FE |
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103 When prompted to do so, it obediently fills in a permissive license. |
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104 That permissive license violates the Quake code's GPL-2.0 license. |
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105 Copilot provides no indication that a license violation is taking place. |
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106 . |
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107 .PP |
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108 GitHub performed its own research into the matter. |
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109 .FS |
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110 I doubt anybody worth their salt would count on a company to hold itself |
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111 accountable, but at least they tried. |
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112 .FE |
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113 You can read about it on their blog: |
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114 GitHub Copilot research recitation, |
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115 .FS |
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116 https://github.blog/2021-06-30-github-copilot-research-recitation/ |
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117 .FE |
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118 by Albert Ziegler. |
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119 .FS |
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120 https://github.com/wunderalbert |
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121 .FE |
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122 I'm not convinced that it accounts for the fact that suggested code migh… |
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123 . |
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124 . |
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125 .IP "Exhibit B: The Eloquence speech synthesizer" |
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126 . |
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127 .PP |
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128 I recently had a chat with Matt on IRC about screen readers and differen… |
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129 I mentioned that while I do like some variety, I always find myself retu… |
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130 .FS |
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131 https://github.com/espeak-ng/espeak-ng/ |
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132 .FE |
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133 He shared some of my fondness, and also shared his preference for a simi… |
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134 . |
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135 .PP |
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136 Downloads of Eloquence are easy to find (it's even included with the JAW… |
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137 Nuance acquired Eloquent Technology, the developer of Eloquence. |
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138 Microsoft later acquired Nuance. |
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139 . |
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140 . |
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141 .IP "Eloquence sample audio" |
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142 . |
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143 .PP |
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144 Matt recorded this sample audio clip of Eloquence reading some text. |
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145 .FS |
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146 https://seirdy.one/a/eloquence.mp3 |
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147 .FE |
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148 The text is from the introduction of Best practices for inclusive textua… |
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149 .FS |
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150 https://seirdy.one/posts/2020/11/23/website-best-practices/ |
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151 .FE |
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152 . |
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153 .QP |
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154 My primary focus is inclusive design. |
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155 Specifically, I focus on supporting underrepresented ways to read a page. |
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156 Not all users load a page in a common web-browser and navigate effortles… |
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157 Authors often neglect people who read through accessibility tools, tiny … |
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158 I list more niches in the conclusion. |
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159 Compatibility with so many niches sounds far more daunting than it reall… |
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160 if you only selectively override browser defaults and use plain-old, sem… |
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161 . |
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162 .PP |
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163 I like the Eloquence speech synthesizer. |
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164 It sounds similar to the robotic yet predictable voice of my beloved eSp… |
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165 Unfortunately, Eloquence is proprietary. |
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166 . |
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167 . |
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168 .IP "Exhibit C: Deep learning speech synthesis" |
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169 . |
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170 .PP |
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171 Deep learning speech synthesis |
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172 .FS |
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173 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deep_learning_speech_synthesis |
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174 .FE |
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175 is a recent approach to speech synthesizer creation. |
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176 It involves training a deep neural network on voice samples, and using t… |
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177 One synthesizer using deep learning speech synthesis is Mozilla's TTS. |
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178 .FS |
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179 https://github.com/mozilla/TTS |
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180 .FE |
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181 . |
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182 .PP |
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183 Zero-shot approaches could allow a pre-trained model to generate multipl… |
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184 YourTTS |
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185 .FS |
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186 https://doi.org/10.48550/arXiv.2112.02418 |
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187 .FE |
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188 is one such example. |
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189 This could allow us to synthetically re-create a person's voice more eas… |
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190 . |
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191 . |
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192 .IP "My horrible plan" |
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193 . |
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194 .PP |
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195 My horrible plan revolves around going through two different lawsuits to… |
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196 . |
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197 .PP |
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198 If this succeeds, we have new legal justification that GitHub Copilot is… |
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199 It's a win-win situation. |
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200 . |
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201 . |
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202 .IP "Part One: set a precedent" |
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203 . |
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204 .IP 1. |
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205 Train a modern text-to-speech (TTS) engine using the voice a proprietary… |
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206 Keep the model's internals hidden. |
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207 . |
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208 .IP 2. |
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209 Then release the final TTS under a permissive license. |
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210 Remember, we're still keeping the machine-learning model hidden! |
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211 . |
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212 .IP 3. |
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213 Wait for that company to file suit. |
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214 .FS |
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215 If the stars align, you could file an anticipatory suit against the comp… |
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216 It's common for declaratory judgement regarding intellectual property ri… |
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217 https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Declaratory_judgment |
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218 .FE |
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219 . |
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220 .IP 4. |
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221 Win or lose the case. |
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222 . |
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223 . |
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224 .IP "Part Two: use that precedent against Microsoft's Nuance" |
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225 . |
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226 .PP |
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227 Our goal here is to get the same legal outcome as the low-stakes “tria… |
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228 . |
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229 .PP |
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230 Microsoft owns Nuance. |
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231 Nuance previously bought Eloquent Technology, the developers of the Eloq… |
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232 . |
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233 .IP 1. |
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234 Repeat Part One against Nuance speech synthesizers, including Eloquence. |
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235 Go to court. |
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236 . |
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237 .IP 2. |
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238 Have the ruling from Part One cited as legal precedent. |
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239 . |
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240 .IP 3. |
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241 Achieve the same outcome as Part One, demonstrating that we have indeed … |
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242 . |
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243 . |
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244 .IP "Implications of the outcomes" |
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245 . |
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246 .PP |
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247 If we \fIwin\fR both cases: |
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248 Microsoft has the legal high ground. |
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249 Making a derivative of a copyrighted work using a machine-learning algor… |
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250 . |
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251 .PP |
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252 If we \fIlose\fR both cases: |
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253 Microsoft does not have the legal high ground. |
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254 We have good judicial precedent against Microsoft to use when filing sui… |
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255 . |
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256 .PP |
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257 Either way, it's an absolute win for free software. |
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258 Taking down Copilot protects copyleft from enabling proprietary derivati… |
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259 But if we accidentally win these two low-stakes “test” cases, we sti… |
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260 we can liberate huge swaths of proprietary software, starting with speec… |
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261 . |
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262 . |
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263 .IP "Update: on satire" |
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264 . |
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265 .PP |
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266 This post isn't “satire through-and-through” like something from The… |
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267 Rather, my intent was to make some clear points, but extrapolate them to… |
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268 I don't think I was clear enough when doing this. |
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269 I'm sorry. |
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270 . |
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271 .PP |
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272 Copilot has been found to suggest significant amounts of code that is da… |
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273 It does this without disclosing obligations that come with those works' … |
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274 Training a model on copyrighted works may not be wrong in and of itself;… |
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275 Copilot's users could apply proprietary licenses to the generated works,… |
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276 . |
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277 .PP |
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278 When a tool almost exclusively encourages problematic behavior, the make… |
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279 GitHub and OpenAI have not demonstrated a sufficiently careful approach. |
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280 . |
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281 .PP |
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282 I don't think that “going after” a smaller player just to manipulate… |
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283 The fact that this idea seems plausible to some of my readers shows how … |
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284 Even if it's accurate (I doubt it's accurate, but I'm not certain), it's… |
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285 Judicial systems incentivise too much predatory behavior. |
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286 . |
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287 . |
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288 .IP "Corrections" |
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289 . |
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290 It's come to my attention that Eloquence may or may not still belong to … |
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291 Further research is needed. |
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292 Eloquent Technology was acquired by SpeechWorks in 2000. |
