GitHub Copilot may steer Microsoft into a copyright lawsuit

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Abstraction-Filtration-Compari...

This allows for verbatim copies if they are utilitarian in nature!

As for why we should allow verbatim copies of utilitarian features... First, let's preface this with the substantial similarity of the structure, sequence and organization as established in Whelan v. Jaslow which amongst other things says that you cannot merely change the variable names if the expressive structure of the code remains the same. Now let's imagine 10,000 software developers who all implement Dijkstra's algorithm in C and then run it through clang-format. Aside from variable names, isn't it safe to assume that many of the implementations are going to be exactly the same?

Now, this doesn’t mean that GitHub is not in violation of other copyright claims, such as clearly expressive parts like comments and more!

"If there's only one good way to do it, OK, then that's probably not eligible for copyright."

That's from Tyler T. Ochoa:

Professor Ochoa is a recognized expert in copyright law and rights of publicity. He joined the Santa Clara University School of Law faculty in 2003, and he served as Academic Director of the High Technology Law Institute for the 2005-2006 academic year. Prior to joining Santa Clara Law, Professor Ochoa served as a professor and co-director of the Center for Intellectual Property Law at Whittier Law School. He has also served as a clerk for the Honorable Cecil F. Poole of the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Ninth Circuit and as an associate with the law firm of Brown & Bain in Palo Alto, California, where he specialized in copyright and trade secret litigation involving computer software. He is also a two-time “Jeopardy!” champion and a champion on “Win Ben Stein’s Money”.