Discussion
Are you using LLMs to write Free Software?
Then you should know whether your software is copyrightable, the situations in which you can license it, and what risks it may create for maintainers.
Our new Legal Corner explains what you need to consider:
https://fsfe.org/news/2026/news-20260825-01.html
#FreeSoftware #OpenSource #Copyright #LLM #AI #generativeAI #VibeCoding
@fsfe I think the vast majority of LLM generated software is for own consumption, which makes it kind of a stepchild of open source.
In more ways than one.
Published software is going to face a number of legal tests though, I'm sure.
@fsfe honest question: if I were to publish all my code as Public Domain (or CC-0), I understand it would not be free software under the FSF definition, but could it still be safely included/reused in other free software projects? (if so, I'd be quite happy to simply relinquish my copyrights, and get on with it).
This would be easier to clarify if LLMs tracked which was the source of each token they generated, so it could calculate the attribution and licensing. But so far, none of them do
@csolisr
They can't.
There's no labels in the model that connect any specific part of the model with any specific piece of training data.
The LLM would have to be trained in such a way that each token keeps a reference to which source documents are being used as a reference, and in which proportions. When said token is used to generate a response, it would then be able to compare it with the source documents, determine how much of a contribution did each document provide to the response, and credit each document above a given threshold.
@fsfe This begs the question: how fast can AI turn this legal corner, into an illegal globe of collapse, only benefiting the uber rich TechBros?
@fsfe the part that bites maintainers later is mixed authorship. once a file has unclear human vs model contribution, the license grant gets fuzzy even when the project wants copyleft.
Same vibe...
Edit: Actually actually actually:
"Some legal professionals have suggested that Naruto v. Slater could be a potential precedent in copyright litigation over works created by generative AI.[57]"
🐵 📷
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Monkey_selfie_copyright_dispute
@fsfe if I spend months of my life writing code, defining expected behavior, testing, refining, debugging, releasing, to produce a new software with all sorts of new features i imagined, because I used a LLM it would not be copyrightable ? 🤨
@fsfe I use it when I forget a command (I'm starting out in programming, sometimes I forget things) and to find errors that I can't find, but I try to write most of my code.
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