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The Free Software Foundation (FSF) called GitHub Copilot “unacceptable and unjust” in a December 14, 2021 article because, in its view, using Copilot depended on nonfree software and amounted to “Service as a Software Substitute” (SaaSS). That was an ethical and software-freedom judgment—not a court finding that Copilot infringed copyright. Later legal papers hosted by the FSF expressed their authors’ arguments, while GitHub’s current documentation describes product controls and data policies that address different questions.
Why did the FSF call Copilot “unacceptable and unjust”?
In a December 14, 2021 article, Craig Topham, a contributor to the FSF Licensing and Compliance Lab, wrote: “We already know that Copilot as it stands is unacceptable and unjust.” Topham’s stated grounds were that Copilot required running nonfree software and constituted SaaSS, a category the FSF uses in its analysis of software freedom. The article also said the FSF wanted to examine licensing compliance and whether generated output could be copyrighted. Read Topham’s FSF article.
The phrase “as it stands” matters: it describes the Foundation’s assessment at that time, rather than a timeless technical description or a legal judgment. The cited FSF material establishes that 2021 statement; it does not establish whether the FSF later formally revised or reaffirmed the position.
How does the FSF statement differ from the later legal papers?
After soliciting community white papers about copyright, ownership of generated code, and copyleft licensing, the FSF published a collection page that expressly cautions that the papers contain opinions with which it may or may not agree. Their authors’ views do not necessarily represent the Foundation. The FSF’s white-paper announcement and Copilot topic collection provide that context.
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#1 Best Overall
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The Rothchild authors’ copyright analysis
John A. Rothchild, a professor of law at Wayne State University, and Daniel H. Rothchild argued that Copilot’s training and deployment, as well as developers’ use of its outputs, likely did not infringe copyright under the arguments they considered. That is the authors’ analysis, not settled law or an FSF conclusion.
Copyright and license compliance are separate questions
The same authors said their paper did not address whether Copilot violated free-software licenses in ways that did not amount to copyright infringement, or whether it violated authors’ moral rights. A conclusion about infringement therefore does not settle every question about a particular license’s terms. The FSF’s software-freedom objection, the authors’ copyright analysis, and copyleft-compliance concerns should not be treated as interchangeable verdicts.
Rank #2
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What does GitHub document about public-code matches?
GitHub’s current documentation describes controls for suggestions that match publicly available code. Depending on the product and the user’s or organization’s setting, matching suggestions can be blocked or shown with code references. GitHub says those references can help users inspect a matching public repository and detected license information, and advises users to review and validate suggestions. GitHub’s IDE code-suggestions documentation explains the feature.
Code references apply to accepted inline suggestions. GitHub says logged reference information can include matching file URLs and a license if one was found. Its system compares code with an index of public GitHub repositories that it refreshes every few months. As a result, recently committed code may not yet appear in the index, and code removed before indexing may be absent. These references are not a comprehensive license scan or legal clearance. GitHub’s code-referencing documentation describes the scope and limitations.
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- What You Get: Anker USB-C Hub (7-in-1), welcome guide, 18-month warranty, and our friendly customer service.
Does GitHub train on Copilot interactions?
GitHub’s individual-subscriber policy documentation says that, from April 24, 2026, it may use interaction data from eligible individual Copilot plans to train and improve models, subject to applicable settings. It distinguishes those individual subscriptions from Business and Enterprise customer data, which it says it does not use for training. The policy is plan-specific and settings-dependent, not a blanket rule for every Copilot user. Check GitHub’s individual-subscriber policy documentation for the applicable settings and current terms.
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- 5-in-1 Connectivity: Equipped with a 4K HDMI port, a 5 Gbps USB-C data port, two 5 Gbps USB-A ports, and a USB C 100W PD-IN port. Note: The USB C 100W PD-IN port supports only charging and does not support data transfer devices such as headphones or speakers.
- Powerful Pass-Through Charging: Supports up to 85W pass-through charging so you can power up your laptop while you use the hub. Note: Pass-through charging requires a charger (not included). Note: To achieve full power for iPad, we recommend using a 45W wall charger.
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- HD Display: Connect to the HDMI port to stream or mirror content to an external monitor in resolutions of up to 4K@30Hz. Note: The USB-C ports do not support video output.
- What You Get: Anker 332 USB-C Hub (5-in-1), welcome guide, our worry-free 18-month warranty, and friendly customer service.
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What should readers take from the disagreement?
- The “unacceptable and unjust” wording is Craig Topham’s attributed statement in an FSF article published December 14, 2021, grounded in software freedom, nonfree software, and SaaSS.
- FSF-hosted legal papers are authored contributions, and the Foundation explicitly says their views do not necessarily represent its own.
- Copyright infringement, compliance with copyleft license terms, and the FSF’s ethical software-freedom assessment are related but distinct issues.
- GitHub documents matching controls and references, but index coverage and detected license information do not establish the provenance or legal status of every suggestion.
- Data-use terms depend on plan and settings; GitHub’s documentation identifies April 24, 2026 as the effective date for the described individual-plan training policy.
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