> It's important to remember that the purpose of the license is to allow the copyright owner to exercise their rights in a manner they deem fit.
Just as it's important to remember that the purpose of regulations like copyright and patents are to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.
We're not locked in to a suicide pact with what the Founding Fathers decided back in the late 1700s. Congress can decide that all LLM-generated code is automatically covered by -say- the GPLv3, even if no one holds the copyright to it.
If the absence of a particular person to hold the copyright twists your knickers, you could go a bit further and -say- decide that the people of the United States collectively hold the copyright to all LLM-generated code that's generated by US people or entities, and that relicensing of a particular piece of LLM-generated code must be agreed to by every US citizen that was alive when that code was created.
Maybe, but I don't think there's any legal president for that, is there? Much of existing law is based on centuries of private property rights. I don't see any government undoing that... or at least, not quickly.
> Maybe, but I don't think there's any legal president for that, is there?
We're not locked in to a suicide pact with what the Founding Fathers decided back in the late 1700s. Congress can decide that all LLM-generated code is automatically covered by -say- the GPLv3, even if no one holds the copyright to it.
Article I, Section 8 of the Constitution and its various subsections pretty clearly gives Congress this power.
The IP laws are a) not really modelled after material property rights; b) are quite much more recent than "centuries"; c) there is legal precedent for that, see e.g. the airplane-related patents being pooled in 1917 by the demand from the US government.
> you could go a bit further and -say- decide that the people of the United States collectively hold the copyright
Was going to comment something similar; we do have concepts of "dominium eminens", and "escheated property", and "public domain", and many other similar ideas. If the people (through their representatives) decide on a certain property regime, it absolutely can be implemented even if it's different from the status quo.
> We're not locked in to a suicide pact with what the Founding Fathers decided back in the late 1700s. Congress can decide that all LLM-generated code is automatically covered by -say- the GPLv3, even if no one holds the copyright to it.
I have no issue with changing the law. My comment is about the article and the author's misapplication of the law.
I think it would be the part about how courts have a fairly strong status quo bias and aren't going to remake the entire economy overnight with completely unenforceable provisions.
What are they going to do confiscate the world's gamer GPUs that can run this stuff all locally?
Nobody is going to interpret the laws that way. That's completely stupid.
Everyone is using AI generated code in all sorts of ways, and the idea that the courts are just going to say "nuh-uh. All existing use of AI code is illegal" is completely ridiculous.
Courts don't upend entire economies like that. This would be the remaking of the entire software industry overnight and it would be completely unenforceable.
I'm certainly not going to listen to any such ruling and will continue making code locally. As will basically every other software engineer in the industry.
> Nobody is going to interpret the laws that way. That's completely stupid.
You're absolutely right! And a little more than two hours before you posted this comment, I posted this [0] one! Make sure to read the parent comment for the context... it's pretty important.
Gotcha, not really related to my point that the courts aren't going to completely remake the entire software industry over night and neither is congress.
That's absurd. It is a fantasy. Neither lawmakers or anyone else is going to remake the software economy.
Just as it's important to remember that the purpose of regulations like copyright and patents are to promote the progress of science and the useful arts.
We're not locked in to a suicide pact with what the Founding Fathers decided back in the late 1700s. Congress can decide that all LLM-generated code is automatically covered by -say- the GPLv3, even if no one holds the copyright to it.
If the absence of a particular person to hold the copyright twists your knickers, you could go a bit further and -say- decide that the people of the United States collectively hold the copyright to all LLM-generated code that's generated by US people or entities, and that relicensing of a particular piece of LLM-generated code must be agreed to by every US citizen that was alive when that code was created.
Maybe, but I don't think there's any legal president for that, is there? Much of existing law is based on centuries of private property rights. I don't see any government undoing that... or at least, not quickly.
Was going to comment something similar; we do have concepts of "dominium eminens", and "escheated property", and "public domain", and many other similar ideas. If the people (through their representatives) decide on a certain property regime, it absolutely can be implemented even if it's different from the status quo.
I have no issue with changing the law. My comment is about the article and the author's misapplication of the law.
What parts of the six-paragraph Fine Article misapply the law? Be sure to quote and include the context surrounding the quoted section(s).
What are they going to do confiscate the world's gamer GPUs that can run this stuff all locally?
It's completely ridiculous.
Everyone is using AI generated code in all sorts of ways, and the idea that the courts are just going to say "nuh-uh. All existing use of AI code is illegal" is completely ridiculous.
Courts don't upend entire economies like that. This would be the remaking of the entire software industry overnight and it would be completely unenforceable.
I'm certainly not going to listen to any such ruling and will continue making code locally. As will basically every other software engineer in the industry.
You're absolutely right! And a little more than two hours before you posted this comment, I posted this [0] one! Make sure to read the parent comment for the context... it's pretty important.
[0] <https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=50507914>
That's absurd. It is a fantasy. Neither lawmakers or anyone else is going to remake the software economy.