Source: https://www.proceso.com.mx/ciencia-tecnologia/2023/9/9/microsoft-defendera-clientes-comerciales-que-usen-copilot-ante-demandas-por-derechos-de-autor-314557.html

Microsoft announced a significant decision to support users who use the Artificial Intelligence (AI) program, Copilot, for content generation purposes. In this regard, last Thursday, the company made public the Copilot Copyright Commitment, a program aimed at reassuring its commercial customers, by which they commit to assume the legal consequences in case they face lawsuits for copyright infringement related to the use of Copilot.

This move came in response to the growing concern that some organizations were facing due to potential Intellectual Property infringement claims for using said generative AI tool.

Worth mentioning that Copilot is a software development platform developed by GitHub, which uses AI to help programmers to write code more efficiently. However, this technology had raised concerns in the developer community, as it was feared that it could violate copyrights for generating codes similar or identical to other existing programs.

As a result of the above, and in order to protect its commercial customers, Microsoft said it was going to assume the legal costs of its users and that it was going to work closely with affected customers to ensure their legal protection. In addition, to prevent copyright infringement, the company has also integrated a series of barriers to ensure copyright protection, with filters and other technologies designed to reduce the likelihood of infringing content sharing in Microsoft 365 Copilot -which brings this technology to Word, Excel and PowerPoint, among others- and GitHub Copilot.

Undoubtedly, this decision is an important step in terms of accountability and customer support in the technology industry, as usually, users of AI and software development tools feel unprotected and exposed to potential litigation for copyright infringement, especially when it comes to generating automated code or code similar to that of other programs.

Finally, it is important to note that Microsoft’s legal defense is specifically limited to commercial customers using Copilot within the stated terms of service and any misuse or copyright infringement occurring outside of these terms may not be covered by this protection.