Re: Next Steps For the Software Heritage Problem

[Ian Eure <ian@retrospec.tv>]

Hi Greg,

Please read my earlier reply in this thread[1].

HuggingFace is demonstrably violating the licenses of the Free 
Software used to train its StarCoder2 LLM.

Software Heritage is continuing to partner with HuggingFace in 
spite of these violations.

Guix is continuing to partner with SWH in spite of their continued 
support of these violations.

Guix is indirectly enabling the violation of the license for the 
Free Software it packages.  Guix has the power to stop doing that. 
What is your specific rationale for continuing to enable these 
clear license violations?

Thanks,

  — Ian

[1]: 
https://lists.gnu.org/archive/html/guix-devel/2024-06/msg00195.html

Greg Hogan <code@greghogan.com> writes:

> On Tue, Jun 18, 2024 at 12:33 PM MSavoritias 
> <email@msavoritias.me> wrote:
>>
>> Ah it seems I wasn't clear enough.
>> I meant write something like:
>>
>> By packaging a software project for Guix you are exposing said 
>> software
>> to a code harvesting project (also known as LLMs or "AI") run 
>> by
>> Software Heritage and/or their partners. Make sure you have 
>> gotten
>> fully informed consent and that the author of this package 
>> fully
>> understands what the implications are.
>>
>> Something like that. To make it clear that the package that is 
>> about to
>> be added to Guix is going to be harvested for the LLM models 
>> Software
>> Heritage decided to share the code with.
>>
>> Hope this is more clear.
>
> Free software licenses do not require bespoke consent to "to run 
> the
> program, to study and change the program in source code form, to
> redistribute exact copies, and to distribute modified versions" 
> (and
> "Being free to do these things means (among other things) that 
> you do
> not have to ask or pay for permission to do so.").
>
> Your fear mongering against free software runs afoul of Guix 
> project
> guidelines ("In addition, the GNU distribution follow [sic] the 
> free
> software distribution guidelines. Among other things, these 
> guidelines
> reject non-free firmware, recommendations of non-free software, 
> and
> discuss ways to deal with trademarks and patents.").
>
> If you feel that LLMs/AI are violating the terms of a license, 
> then
> feel free to pursue that through the legal system (potentially 
> very
> profitable given the monetary penalties for violations of 
> copyright).
> Otherwise, we should be celebrating the users and use of free
> software. I'm old enough to remember "Only wimps use tape 
> backup:
> _real_ men just upload their important stuff on ftp, and let the 
> rest
> of the world mirror it ;)"
> [https://lkml.iu.edu/hypermail/linux/kernel/9607.2/0292.html].