A federal appeals court just ruled that github copilot’s output is not a copy under the dmca,…
a federal appeals court just ruled that github copilot’s output is not a copy under the dmca, trimming a $9b class action to its license claims. the ninth circuit’s sept 16 opinion left open whether ai code infringes copyright at all.
developers now have their first real legal answer to who owns what the model wrote.
Context
Verified date: the Ninth Circuit opinion in Doe v. GitHub, No. 24-7700, was filed Sep 16, 2026, after argument on Feb 11, 2026. It came on an interlocutory appeal under 28 U.S.C. 1292(b), and the panel affirmed the district court's dismissal. Justia describes the programmers' claim as Copilot and Codex omitting copyright management information such as attribution and license terms.
The case is about the Digital Millennium Copyright Act's copyright management information provision, which is narrower than whether AI output infringes copyright.
The Sep 16 date and the Ninth Circuit match the opinion. The post says output 'is not a copy under the DMCA'; the sources read frame the holding as affirming dismissal of the copyright management information claims, so the 'not a copy' wording is the author's summary and not a quote. The $9b class action size and the remaining license claims were not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. That developers now have a first real legal answer is the author's opinion; the post itself says the infringement question is left open.
Related work
- Opinion on CourtListener ↗Same opinion, docket copy.
- Justia summary ↗Case summary.
- FindLaw copy ↗Full text.
Watch next
- Read the opinion's summary section for exactly which claims were affirmed as dismissed.
Sources
- Doe v. GitHub, Ninth Circuit opinion No. 24-7700cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov
- Doe v. GitHub, Inc., No. 24-7700 (9th Cir. 2026), Justialaw.justia.com
- Doe v. GitHub, Ninth Circuit, FindLawcaselaw.findlaw.com
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 1 October 2026 at 09:55 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
View the original post ↗Embed this note
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