Licensing: Right to Repair, a Paradox, and Microsoft GitHub Copilot Litigation

posted by Roy Schestowitz on Nov 07, 2022

• An Emergent Legal Right to Repair Electronic Devices [paywall]

  Well, that was then, and this is now. With software now pervasively embedded in all manner of devices—cars, tractors, toasters, and smartphones, just to name a few—it has become difficult, and sometimes impossible, for owners of devices to repair them when they break down or have them fixed by independent repair shops. Often this is because parts, tools, and schematics are unavailable. But because embedded software is copyright-protected and often subject to license and technical restrictions on reverse engineering, repair, and maintenance, repairing your own devices or hiring others to repair them may also be legally risky.2

• The open source paradox

  As somebody said, the best code is written when you are supposed to do something else [1]. Like a writer will do her best when writing that novel that, maybe, nobody will pay a single cent for, and not when doing copywriting work for a well known company, programmers are likely to spend more energies in their open source side projects than during office hours, while writing another piece of a project they feel stupid, boring, pointless. And, if the company is big enough, chances are it will be cancelled in six months anyway or retired one year after the big launch.

• GitHub Copilot litigation

  We’ve filed a law­suit challeng­ing GitHub Copi­lot, an AI product that relies on unprecedented opensource software piracy. Because AI needs to be fair & ethical for every­one.