DOE 1 v. GitHub, Inc.

In J. Doe 1 v. GitHub, Inc., a group of programmers sued GitHub, Microsoft, and OpenAI, alleging that AI models Codex and Copilot were trained on their open-source code in violation of legal rights. Because the code was licensed under open-source terms, the plaintiffs focused on claims such as breach of license, DMCA violations, and interference with contracts.

A second class-action complaint was filed seven days later by two additional plaintiffs, J. Doe 3 and J. Doe 4, raising similar claims. The two actions were later consolidated.

In May 2023, the court found the plaintiffs lacked standing for damages but plausibly alleged a risk of future harm and some DMCA violations. After a revised complaint added output examples, the court ruled in January 2024 that three plaintiffs had standing for damages. However, it dismissed DMCA §1202(b) claims (no identical copies) and several state law claims as preempted by the Copyright Act.

The case is now on appeal before the Ninth Circuit and is a key test of copyright and attribution rights in AI model training.

This summary is provided for educational and research purposes only and does not constitute legal advice. Allegations described are those made in the filings. Please consult the underlying source documents.