Microsoft addresses intellectual property infringement issues with Copilot copyright commitment

Microsoft recently announced the Copilot Copyright Commitment to address concerns about potential intellectual property infringement arising from the use of generative artificial intelligence. Under this commitment, Microsoft will assume potential legal risks for various products, including GitHub Copilot, if customers face copyright challenges.

This commitment covers third-party intellectual property claims based on copyright, patents, trademarks, and trade secrets. It encompasses the use and sale of output content generated by Microsoft Copilot services by customers and requires customers to utilize built-in content filters and other security systems.

The Copilot Copyright Commitment extends the existing Microsoft intellectual property indemnification scope to the paid versions of Bing Chat Enterprise Edition and commercial Copilot services, including Microsoft 365 Copilot and GitHub Copilot. According to the commitment, if a third party sues a commercial customer for copyright infringement resulting from the use of these services, Microsoft will pay any legal damages.

Microsoft Vice President and President Brad Smith and Chief Legal Officer Hossein Nowbar explained:

If a third party sues a commercial customer for copyright infringement resulting from the use of Microsoft's Copilots or their generated output, we will defend the customer and pay any adverse judgments or settlement amounts resulting from the litigation, as long as the customer has used the built-in safeguards and content filters in our products.

Last year, Microsoft faced a class-action lawsuit questioning the legality of GitHub Copilot and related OpenAI Codex. Smith and Nowbar emphasized the limitations of the commitment:

This program has some important conditions, as we recognize that our technology could be intentionally misused to generate harmful content. To prevent this situation, customers must use the built-in content filters and other security systems and must not attempt to generate infringing materials.

In an article titled "Why Microsoft's Copilot Copyright Commitment may not matter much to users (for now)," Michael Cherry, Senior Analyst at Directions on Microsoft, warned:

Often, people do not understand that they do not have the right to use certain content, especially in cases of copyright exceptions, such as the concept of "fair use" for small amounts of material.

Reddit user cauldrath commented:

Microsoft can provide litigation protection for its paying customers because they already have the appropriate legal infrastructure and can fund it with their sales revenue.

The Copilot Copyright Commitment will take effect on October 1st and will not extend to any products without Copilot, nor will it require customers to change contracts or take action.