The class action lawsuit that began in 2022 against Microsoft, GitHub and OpenAI is heading towards widespread failure. The plaintiffs have accused GitHub and its parent Microsoft and OpenAI of copyright infringement through the programming aid GitHub Copilot.
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The July 5 court order dismissed several key claims, including the central allegation of violating the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Judge John Tigar has now dismissed most of the 22 allegations.
Class action lawsuit for unauthorized code taking
The class action lawsuit began in November 2022 with the central allegation that GitHub Copilot outputs publicly available code snippets in the generated code without reference to the source. The AI system thus violates the terms of several open source license models and the rights of the original developers.
The other defendants are Microsoft, the parent company of GitHub, and OpenAI, which developed the technology behind GitHub Copilot, along with Codex.
Since the launch of the programming aid in June 2021, there has been discussion about the extent to which GitHub Copilot infringes copyright, and the Free Software Foundation targeted the system for this in August 2021. In preparation for a class action lawsuit, there were growing allegations that Copilot was simply taking over sections of code.
Lawyer and programmer Matthew Buttrick largely led the lawsuit filing effort at the time. He also runs a website about it. The total damages claimed in the November 2022 class action lawsuit were $9 billion.
DMCA charge eventually dismissed
After several claims, the court has now dismissed three more claims. Contents Recent court order dated June 24 and from July 5 can be found on the Courtlisner websitewhich also includes collected Process Documents can be found including Original indictment,
The latest ruling dismisses a key allegation: violation of the Digital Millennium Copyright Act, which prohibits the removal of copyright management information. According to the plaintiffs, because GitHub Copilot outputs code without a copyright notice, it violates the DMCA.
The June 24 ruling includes a detailed discussion of the DMCA charges, which the court dismissed with the main argument being that the code was not sufficiently similar. Developers’ complaints that Copilot would simply copy their code were a motivation for the lawsuit.
The court’s order ultimately dismisses this point of claim (with prejudice). The plaintiffs therefore cannot bring it back into the proceedings.
Two other points were rejected
The court’s decision also dismisses two other points of the complaint, although not definitively. The court dismissed the claim for compensation alleging unjust enrichment. The plaintiffs failed to legally prove that they were entitled to compensation for unlawful enrichment.
Punitive damages, which exceed the damages suffered, were also denied. Perhaps there is a formality in the foreground: the mere fact that the plaintiff did not respond to GitHub’s request to dismiss the damages claim in its objection justifies dismissing the plaintiff’s claim.
two points left
This leaves two of the 22 original claims: one for violation of the open source license and one for breach of contract. The court had already dismissed it once, but the plaintiffs were able to reintroduce it.
But Butterick’s website about the process At the time of writing this report, there was no comment on the recent decisions as well Website of the law firm Joseph Saveriwhich represents the class action lawsuit.
(RME)
