A federal judge has partially dismissed a billion-dollar class action lawsuit against GitHub, OpenAI, and Microsoft. The lawsuit accused these entities of unauthorized use of intellectual property to train the “GitHub Copilot” AI coding software.

Lawsuit Background

The complainants alleged that OpenAI “scraped” GitHub for human-created code snippets to train GitHub Copilot without obtaining permission, providing compensation, or giving credit. They claimed that Copilot reproduced human-generated code verbatim, seeking $1 billion in damages.

The lawsuit, filed in 2022, involved five anonymous complainants, each identified as “John Doe” in court documents.

Judge’s Decision

California Northern District Judge Jon S. Tigar dismissed the class claims under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA). Reports from Bloomberg Law and Law360 indicated that the judge ruled the plaintiffs “failed to show their code was reproduced identically.”

The dismissal order was filed on June 24, with public access to the document restricted initially due to the possible exposure of previously redacted names. The document was unsealed on July 5.

Impact on AI and Tech Industry

This dismissal is a significant win for the tech and generative AI industry, currently facing numerous similar lawsuits. Analysts had anticipated that the case would have far-reaching implications for AI technology. James Vincent of The Verge noted that the lawsuit could potentially impact the broader AI landscape, comparing it to the “Napster-era of AI.”

Vincent also referenced programmers behind the lawsuit who argued that allowing Microsoft to use others’ code without attribution could jeopardize the open-source movement. However, as of July 2024, those concerns appear largely dismissed.

Future Implications

What this decision means for Microsoft, OpenAI, and GitHub remains uncertain. It could, however, pave the way for these companies to continue their AI-driven coding initiatives without significant legal hindrances.

Microsoft and OpenAI are also facing other related lawsuits, including one from the New York Times, which alleges that OpenAI used its intellectual property to train its models. The outcome of the recent ruling may influence the direction and outcomes of these and other pending cases.

Source: Cointelegraph