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How does one make the leap from "a source available but otherwise proprietary license" to a copyleft license? As I understand the terms, perhaps in too limited a way, a proprietary license is never one in which others are free to build on the code or incorporate any part of it into their own works, and a source available proprietary license is just publishing source that no-one can use.

As for whether Copilot's morally wrong or not - I don't think copyright as a concept makes any sense at the level of the trivial, where Copilot _should_ be acting. If Copilot regularly reproduces sizeable portions of code from a single origin _without_ careful and deliberate guidance, I'd agree that there's a problem here. As I understand it though, that's not happening.

By its very nature of being published, code from OSS is funnelled into proprietary codebases by humans performing a similar task to Copilot - reading available code and using that to evolve an understanding of how to produce software. I like to think we do it at a deeper level than Copilot, but the general effect is the same: the code I write, like the words I write, are heavily influenced by all the code I've read over the years.

If I wind up using a few words from your comment, down the line, because some turn of phrase you used struck me as a good way to say something, do you think I've morally wronged you?




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