The dmca route against ai code just died, the contract route is still alive. the ninth circuit…
the dmca route against ai code just died, the contract route is still alive. the ninth circuit ruled on sept 16 that copilot's output is a new work, not a stripped copy, killing the $9b doe v. github claim while the open-source license breach claims keep moving.
trained code now gets litigated through contracts, not copyright headers.
Context
Verified date: the Ninth Circuit filed its opinion in Doe v. GitHub, No. 24-7700, on Sep 16, 2026. Justia says the panel affirmed the district court's dismissal of part of the action brought under the Digital Millennium Copyright Act by programmers against GitHub and others, in an interlocutory appeal.
The programmers alleged that Copilot and Codex reproduce their code without attribution, omitting copyright management information.
The Sep 16 date, the DMCA dismissal being affirmed and the Copilot subject match the opinion. The wording 'a new work, not a stripped copy', the $9 billion figure and the statement that open-source license breach claims keep moving were not seen in the sources read, so unsupported here, not refuted. in the excerpts read. The appeal was interlocutory, so the case continues. 'The DMCA route just died' is the author's reading.
Related work
- Ninth Circuit opinion (CourtListener) ↗Filed Sep 16, 2026.
- Justia ↗Case summary.
- FindLaw ↗Opinion text.
Watch next
- Read the opinion for the holding on identicality and which claims remain in the district court.
Sources
- UNITED STATES COURT OF APPEALS FOR THE NINTH CIRCUIT, Doe v. GitHub (opinion PDF)cdn.ca9.uscourts.gov
- Doe v. GitHub, Inc., No. 24-7700 (9th Cir. 2026), Justialaw.justia.com
- Doe v. GitHub, Inc. opinion, FindLawcaselaw.findlaw.com
Provenance
The note above is reproduced unedited from the original post, first published on Threads on 1 October 2026 at 01:03 IST. Sources are the papers and datasets the note draws on.
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