In reply to a developer on one of the Linux kernel mailing lists, Linux creator Linus Torvalds firmly put a foot down to push back against anti-AI comments.
what is a proprietary line of code? how do you look at a for loop or uf statement and say “i own that”. i can tell you that in all the huge applications i have worked on in the last 27 years, there isnt special proprietary code. there is proprietary data but not code.
the only time you really have proprietary codeis specialized code talking to a specialized device. so maybe a closed source driver.
The GPL license no longer covers the kernel in legal terms.
The uncopyrightability of AI-written code only applies to the actual strings of code generated by an AI, not to the entire project.
A person could ignore the GPL if they only copied the AI-written portions. But, how could they know for sure which lines were AI generated and which were not? A wrong choice would leave them civilly liable for copyright violation and all they stand to gain would be tiny portions of the Linux kernel code which are worthless by themselves.
There’s no reason to steal the AI generated portions and risk a lawsuit, when you can just generate your own code.
Whoever combines LLM generated code with GPL licensed code is required to license the result under the GPL. Can they do that if the LLM code isn’t copyrightable?
The GPL license is a way to take things that can be copyrighted and grant those rights to others with limitations (the limitations being the terms of the license).
However, the AI generated portions of the code are not copyrightable and so they’re considered public domain and remain so no matter what. Once something is public domain it is always public domain, no matter where it is used.
In practice, if someone wrote a function by hand and then the AI added some error handling code, then that person has a copyright to the lines that they wrote while the lines that the AI wrote are public domain. The entire function can still be licensed under the GPL but the copyright owner would not be able to pursue you for violation of the license if you used the error handling code in another non-GPL work as that portion is public domain.
From a legal standpoint, since the code isn’t annotated as to which parts were human written (protected by copyright/GPL) and which parts were not (and fall under public domain), it would be unwise to attempt to violate the GPL license terms by taking arbitrary parts of the code and releasing them without a GPL license.
There seems to be legal discussions about that. It’s not quite as simple as you say:
However, there may be cases in which a different assessment is justified, namely when users use and operate the LLM as a tool that merely implements their personal creative intent. This could be compared somewhat more vividly to using a paintbrush. If the brush merely rolls over the paper, for example because it is dropped, no copyright-protected work is created, even if paint remains on the paper. However, if a painter deliberately swings the brush in a certain way, a protected painting can be created. If AI is used in a comparable way a copyright-protected work can indeed be created.
yeah and the paintbrush somehow has abstracted access to millions of proprietary and copyleft licensed source code in forms of weight.
this is a clear misuse and abuse of any fair use rights, and clear push to centralisation of copyright to only a few companies with big budgets that can defend themselves.
i mean, can you really challenge and win against openai, a company backed by the govt, that your copyleft source code are misused as training data?
Yeah any decision would be on a case by case basis, which is normally something you’d want to avoid.
I’ve seen a couple of Linux devs talk about how they just give a prompt to claude and walk away leaving it alone to spit out the code, none of which can be licensed as GPL. But good luck working out what specific lines of what specific patches of theirs used an LLM vs. were re-written or such.
And extremely abusive, since they don’t review the code fully, but a human must review the whole commit before accepting it. They save their time but consume that of others.
Not only that, but AI output can’t be licensed/copyrighted. The GPL license no longer covers the kernel in legal terms.
this is FUD and not true. projects are licensed not lines of code.
But if there are proprietary lines of code that end up in a project with an open license, you get a violation. 🤷♂️
what is a proprietary line of code? how do you look at a for loop or uf statement and say “i own that”. i can tell you that in all the huge applications i have worked on in the last 27 years, there isnt special proprietary code. there is proprietary data but not code.
the only time you really have proprietary codeis specialized code talking to a specialized device. so maybe a closed source driver.
I have worked at two companies back-to-back for a total of about 8 years, so significantly less time, that both definitely had proprietary code.
It is code that does things that nobody else is doing, or able to do, and patented, I believe(?).
But nice anecdote. 👍
The uncopyrightability of AI-written code only applies to the actual strings of code generated by an AI, not to the entire project.
A person could ignore the GPL if they only copied the AI-written portions. But, how could they know for sure which lines were AI generated and which were not? A wrong choice would leave them civilly liable for copyright violation and all they stand to gain would be tiny portions of the Linux kernel code which are worthless by themselves.
There’s no reason to steal the AI generated portions and risk a lawsuit, when you can just generate your own code.
Whoever combines LLM generated code with GPL licensed code is required to license the result under the GPL. Can they do that if the LLM code isn’t copyrightable?
Essentially yes.
The GPL license is a way to take things that can be copyrighted and grant those rights to others with limitations (the limitations being the terms of the license).
However, the AI generated portions of the code are not copyrightable and so they’re considered public domain and remain so no matter what. Once something is public domain it is always public domain, no matter where it is used.
In practice, if someone wrote a function by hand and then the AI added some error handling code, then that person has a copyright to the lines that they wrote while the lines that the AI wrote are public domain. The entire function can still be licensed under the GPL but the copyright owner would not be able to pursue you for violation of the license if you used the error handling code in another non-GPL work as that portion is public domain.
From a legal standpoint, since the code isn’t annotated as to which parts were human written (protected by copyright/GPL) and which parts were not (and fall under public domain), it would be unwise to attempt to violate the GPL license terms by taking arbitrary parts of the code and releasing them without a GPL license.
The Free Software Foundation, the creators of the GNU GPL, has an FAQ that covers a lot of the details: https://www.gnu.org/licenses/gpl-faq.en.html#CombinePublicDomainWithGPL
There seems to be legal discussions about that. It’s not quite as simple as you say:
https://kpmg-law.de/en/ai-and-copyright-what-is-permitted-when-using-llms/
Best to not believe anything KPMG says about AI.
Actually if KPMG say the sky is blue you should probably go outside and check and also make sure you still have your wallet.
yeah and the paintbrush somehow has abstracted access to millions of proprietary and copyleft licensed source code in forms of weight.
this is a clear misuse and abuse of any fair use rights, and clear push to centralisation of copyright to only a few companies with big budgets that can defend themselves.
i mean, can you really challenge and win against openai, a company backed by the govt, that your copyleft source code are misused as training data?
Yeah any decision would be on a case by case basis, which is normally something you’d want to avoid.
I’ve seen a couple of Linux devs talk about how they just give a prompt to claude and walk away leaving it alone to spit out the code, none of which can be licensed as GPL. But good luck working out what specific lines of what specific patches of theirs used an LLM vs. were re-written or such.
While I share Linus opinion on LLMs, I think doing this shit is extremely stupid and lazy.
And extremely abusive, since they don’t review the code fully, but a human must review the whole commit before accepting it. They save their time but consume that of others.