--- title: "Copilot works so well because it steals open source code and strips credit" url: https://daily.dev/posts/copilot-works-so-well-because-it-steals-open-source-code-and-strips-credit-cxvof8poe source_url: https://thenextweb.com/news/github-copilot-works-so-well-because-it-steals-open-source-code-strips-credit type: article source: "The Next Web" published: 2022-07-01T21:54:33.568Z updated: 2026-03-15T05:20:28.870Z tags: ["ai", "general-programming", "github", "microsoft", "open-source"] reading_time: 4 upvotes: 304 comments: 45 language: en --- > ## Documentation Index > Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://daily.dev/llms.txt > Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further. # Copilot works so well because it steals open source code and strips credit **[The Next Web](https://daily.dev/sources/tnw)** · 4 min read · 304 upvotes · 45 comments ## Summary The Software Freedom Conservancy announced its withdrawal from GitHub today. The SFC is upset that Microsoft and OpenAI trained an AI system called Copilot on data that was published under an open-source license. The only way to get access to Copilot is through a special invitation from Microsoft or paid subscription. ## Full article daily.dev links to this article rather than hosting it. Read it at the original source: ## Community discussion Top comments from developers on daily.dev. **@brianebeling** · 24 upvotes > Careful, I don't think the article authors know what they are talking about or represent the view of most consumers of the product. > > > I think that's an oversimplification and bad take on the issue. The article suggests that copilot copies code without giving credit. Yes, that is partly the case. But it's more than that. Its intelligent enough to suggest vcariations and where is the difference between browsing those open source repositories or using Stackoverflow and having Copilot suggest it? None. Yes, I cannot know who made the source code. But I've personally never seen credit in our code... **@setysehtsethseth** · 18 upvotes > My problem with this article is that Copilot is not directly stealing anyone's code, it is simply LEARNING from open-source code. > > > If I went and read every single line of code on every single public repository on GitHub (not humanely possible, but for the sake of this scenario) and learned from that, then went and built my own application with the skills I had learned, am I stealing anyone's code? > > > I don't believe that is the case. **@serjeel** · 11 upvotes > Thanks for pointing this issue, people's hard-work should not be taken for granted by these giants. **@dyrits** · 8 upvotes > Open-source software is computer software that is released under a license in which the copyright holder grants users the rights to use, study, change, and distribute the software and its source code to anyone and for any purpose. **@namefailed** · 7 upvotes > There are definite problems with Copilot, but as the article states, it's just got too much press, and the main stream outlets aren't likely to pick up the negative aspects as it all flies over their heads. The only thing FOSS Dev's can do, is move their code to somewhere else. ## Similar posts on daily.dev - [Don’t just attend KubeCon \+ CloudNativeCon, Merge Forward your experience\!](https://daily.dev/posts/don-t-just-attend-kubecon-cloudnativecon-merge-forward-your-experience--l0rpp73x8) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments - [Announcing H2 2026 KCDs](https://daily.dev/posts/announcing-h2-2026-kcds-m96goajm1) · CNCF · 1 upvotes · 0 comments - [Two months of Open Community Groups](https://daily.dev/posts/two-months-of-open-community-groups-asf52zhbs) · CNCF · 0 upvotes · 0 comments --- Tags: [#ai](https://daily.dev/tags/ai), [#general-programming](https://daily.dev/tags/general-programming), [#github](https://daily.dev/tags/github), [#microsoft](https://daily.dev/tags/microsoft), [#open-source](https://daily.dev/tags/open-source) [View this post on daily.dev](https://daily.dev/posts/copilot-works-so-well-because-it-steals-open-source-code-and-strips-credit-cxvof8poe)