alt.hn

3/31/2026 at 2:25:37 PM

Microsoft: Copilot is for entertainment purposes only

 https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-copilot/for-individuals/termsofuse

by lpcvoid

3/31/2026 at 5:12:11 PM

Anthropic does a somewhat similar thing. If you visit their ToS (the one for Max/Pro plans) from a European IP address, they replace one section with this:

Non-commercial use only. You agree not to use our Services for any commercial or business purposes and we (and our Providers) have no liability to you for any loss of profit, loss of business, business interruption, or loss of business opportunity.

It's funny that a plan called "Pro" cannot be used professionally.

https://www.anthropic.com/legal/consumer-terms

by wowoc

3/31/2026 at 6:03:28 PM

Ha out of curiosity I loaded that same consumer terms URL on both a USA and a UK VPN exit node - sure enough, the UK terms inject that extra clause you quoted banning commercial usage that is not present for USA users.

diff of the changes between US and UK:

https://www.diffchecker.com/BtqVrR9p/

There's the usual expected legal boilerplate differences. However, the UK version injects the additional clause at line 134 that has no analog in the US version.

by giobox

3/31/2026 at 6:12:24 PM

In the Uk there seem to be separate commercial and consumer terms.

In the UK the consumer terms say its subject to English law and the courts of the UK jurisdiction you live in.

The commercial terms say that in the UK, Switzerland and the EEA there will be binding arbitration by an arbitrator in Ireland appointed by the President of the Law Society of Ireland.

by graemep

3/31/2026 at 6:45:34 PM

The UK commercial terms explicitly do not apply to individual user plans. The US also has a separate terms sheet for commercial plans.

We are comparing like for like - an individual user using a Claude Pro subscription. A US user can use it for commercial use and be in compliance with the terms, the UK user cannot.

by giobox

3/31/2026 at 6:34:33 PM

Software in general has disclaimed any warranties or fitness for purpose for as long as I can remember. This is nothing new.

by SoftTalker

3/31/2026 at 7:51:52 PM

Will be interesting to see if those still hold any weight (in the US at least) after the latest Meta rulings established defective design as a valid reason to sue big tech for damages

by mcmcmc

3/31/2026 at 9:02:57 PM

That's not not set yet though. It hasn't made it to appeals yet.

by dylan604

3/31/2026 at 7:42:01 PM

> Software in general has disclaimed any warranties or fitness for purpose

This is not such a disclaimer. If Copilot fails its purpose of entertaining you, you can sue. /i

by chrisjj

3/31/2026 at 7:47:58 PM

Prohibiting the user from using it for any commercial or business purposes is definitely new!

by wat10000

3/31/2026 at 7:54:22 PM

Have you really never seen any software saying "for non-commercial use only"?

by klez

3/31/2026 at 8:09:37 PM

When I'm paying for said software? No, I don't think I have.

by flawi

3/31/2026 at 8:11:06 PM

Only when it's a free/cheap consumer version of something with a pricey business version.

by wat10000

3/31/2026 at 8:41:30 PM

Well, except that, in this case, Copilot really is for entertainment purposes only.

by jrecyclebin

3/31/2026 at 7:01:52 PM

show me any that have claimed that they were for entertainment purposes only. sql server has never had that in its EULA. The GPL does not say that the software is for entertainment purposes only.

by naikrovek

3/31/2026 at 6:31:07 PM

Well, there's your rationale as to why AI cannot replace you.

When sh!t hits the fan, Anthropic will immediately point to this clause. Who knows, maybe a court would see it as valid.

Meanwhile, your customer (and thus, your management) is looking for someone to blame for excrement making contact with the impellers. And that someone's gonna be you.

by lenerdenator

3/31/2026 at 6:57:16 PM

Well, OpenAI doesn't seem to have clauses like this. Europeans are allowed to use it for commercial purposes under the ToS. (But check it yourself, I'm not a lawyer).

I reimplemented my startup idea from scratch with Codex a few months ago, just for peace of mind.

by wowoc

3/31/2026 at 6:45:49 PM

But you have limited funds to take in a lawsuit realistically the worst they can do is fire you, it's not like being blameable somehow makes you more valuable.

by jmalicki

3/31/2026 at 7:31:25 PM

Employees often make mistakes that cost companies thousands of dollars. And there's no shortage of stories where employees cost companies tens of thousands and millions.

When a construction guy messes up measurements and thousands of dollars of work has the be removed and redone, no one thinks of taking the employee to court. Why would you want to take your Ai to court?

by throwawaytea

3/31/2026 at 9:08:51 PM

When the construction worker messes up a job that then causes injury or damages the property they absolutely get sued. The state can even get involved if the mistake is deemed criminal negligence.

In your example the owners will often take the construction company or small business owner to court. Most trades people negotiate and redo the work for free or much reduced cost to avoid this.

In office settings if you expose PII you will likely be fired.

by antihipocrat

3/31/2026 at 7:52:14 PM

what the hell are you on about? Have you ever been employed? Employees do got reprimanded because of their mistakes. Employers just don't sue via the courts for the same reason you don't sue your spouse first thing when they break a plate. They settle via internal penalties first.

(Not only that, employees who got a reprimand too heavy handed can sue back. Plenty of cases around.)

"AI" company provides a service. They might or might not be adequate, that's not the point, the point is that the ability to sue them must always be on the cards if the agreed upon terms aren't met.

by hubertdinsk

3/31/2026 at 3:28:03 PM

Lawyers are playing Calvinball again. I have no idea why the law finds this kind of argumentation compelling. "I clearly intentionally deceived, but I stashed some bullshit legalese into a document no one will read so my deception is completely OK."

by everdrive

3/31/2026 at 6:14:50 PM

Some 20 years ago there was a story about a guy who was opening a bank account. The bank sent the contract, the guy ameneded it with things like "you will give le unlimited credit that I do not need to repay" (if my memory serves me right).

He signed, sent both copies, got his bank signed copy back

Went yo the bank, the bank sued him, he won (the judge told the bank that when you play dirty games you sometimes loose) and they ultimately settled.

by BrandoElFollito

3/31/2026 at 3:33:33 PM

My two cents is that if it didn't, 'I didn't know that was illegal/breach of contract' would be a valid legal defense.

Although intentionally saying things that contradict whats in the contract might be legally objectionable.

by torginus

3/31/2026 at 3:57:25 PM

On the other hand: imagine someone putting "by agreeing to this, you owe us $1,000,000,000 - unless you opt out in writing within 90 days" halfway down the 100-page EULA of some cookie-cutter smartphone app.

It is not at all uncommon for such absurd contract terms to be unenforceable - especially in B2C contracts, although it might even be tricky for B2B clickthrough ones.

The idea being that most contracts are fairly standard, so a lot of people will just skim through them. Putting a landmine in them is obviously in bad faith, so making it enforceable would basically make it impossible to do any kind of business at all.

by crote

3/31/2026 at 6:04:16 PM

FullStory just tried to pull this with their renewal. We had a mult-year contract that started with a two-page order form, on which the words "renewal" or "cancellation" never once appear. During negotiations, it was never discussed that the plan would renew, or that there was a cancellation window. Instead, buried at the very bottom of the form (which they send via CongaSign, and wasn't clickable or obvious), was a line about their subscription agreement being linked to their terms and conditions page. On THAT page, they mention the plan will auto renew and must be cancelled with 60 days notice.

We cancelled at T-45 or so days before renewal, having determined it wasn't a fit for our client anymore, and they insisted "well, actually, you've renewed anyway!" which, no, we haven't. Absolutely absurd to try to "clickwrap" buried renewal terms in a 20+ page T&C/privacy document rather than as a material point of fact on the actual order form being executed.

Feels like the height of absurdity to try to bully your client into forcing them to use your services against their will when they still gave ample notice that they were cancelling and when there was no material loss to the business, but it's always felt like their revenue team has been unhinged in general: exploding offers, insane terms, super high-pressure sales... part of the reason we left them in the first place.

by disillusioned

3/31/2026 at 4:07:47 PM

On the other other hand, they can put whatever they want in there, and because they've forced everything into arbitration with "third party" mediation and carved out their own little niche of the justice system, they'll never actually go to court, they'll just settle and evolve their ToS and contracts and word games accordingly.

by observationist

3/31/2026 at 5:53:53 PM

Not going to work in a lot of countries, again, especially with regard to consumer contracts.

by graemep

3/31/2026 at 7:09:58 PM

Nominally, Common Law, the system of law that to a first approximation is used in countries descended from the UK, has a lot of protections of that sort. You can't put "unconscionable" terms in a contract, e.g., it is simply illegal to sell yourself into total slavery in common-law derived systems. All signatories to a contract must consent, must not be under duress, the contract can not be one-sided (this doesn't mean "the contract is 'fair' from a 3rd-party point of view" but "the contract can't result in only one side giving things but the other doesn't"), and a variety of other common sense rules.

In practice, availing yourself of any of these protections is a massively uphill battle. Judges tend to presume that these common law matters are already embedded into the de facto legal system because the people writing the laws already operated under those assumptions while framing the law. Personally, I disagree and think a lot of these protections have eroded away into either nothing, or so little that it might as well be nothing, but you have a 0% chance of drawing me as a judge in your case so that won't help you much if you try.

by jerf

3/31/2026 at 4:10:03 PM

I wish we lived in more of a "spirit of the law" world than a "letter of the law" world, where everything needs to be spelled out, but we don't. A small minority of people enjoy Rules Lawyering their way through life, insisting on trying to "gotcha" counterparties who are acting in good faith, so as a consequence, we all have to be Rules Lawyers and everything needs to be spelled out.

by ryandrake

3/31/2026 at 7:37:11 PM

I think a “spirit of the law” world would result in judges that already abuse their absurd powers way too much have free rein over any abuse they want to do, and there would be no system for ensuring everyone is treated equally or fairly.

by NetMageSCW

3/31/2026 at 7:51:20 PM

The current alternative is the corpos abuse their absurd powers, and there's no system for ensuring everyone is treated equally or fairly.

by vkou

3/31/2026 at 5:52:45 PM

We live in neither. Many things spelled out are unenforceable. Maybe things not spelled out are implied.

We live in a world where advertising boneless chicken does not actually mean the chicken does not contain bones.

by xboxnolifes

3/31/2026 at 4:34:37 PM

No, you don’t. It only sounds nice. In practice this enables all kinds of spontaneous prosecution with any possible motive.

by d3ckard

3/31/2026 at 4:52:54 PM

Theoretically, courts and judges exist precisely to balance the word and the spirit, and find and judge the actual intent. In practice, I'm in awe that good judgments still happen, despite everything.

by WesolyKubeczek

3/31/2026 at 3:37:59 PM

When the contract is purposefully obtuse and hard to understand, that should be a valid legal defense.

When it's huge, falls upon people that can't justify a lawyer, and keeps changing all the time, one shouldn't even need to claim it. It should be automatically invalid.

by marcosdumay

3/31/2026 at 6:39:19 PM

Contract language is obtuse and hard to understand precisely because of previous challenges over meaning. There are stock phrasings and clauses in contracts that have established (by precident) legal meanings. That's why contracts seem to be walls of boilerplate.

If you just wrote them in "plain language" there would be far too much ambiguity and arguing over what was really meant or implied or agreed to.

by SoftTalker

3/31/2026 at 3:51:46 PM

> Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk.

Seems pretty clear to me, do you really think people need a lawyer to understand that?

by voxic11

3/31/2026 at 4:27:41 PM

The only thing "clear" about that License agreement is it contradicts all their other marketing about Copilot.

So either that document is fraudulent or everyone else at Microsoft is committing fraud daily.

Examples from the first search result: https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/microsoft-365-copi...

Support page with ~25 tutorials provided by Microsoft about how to "Create a document with Copilot" or "Create a branded presentation from a file" or "Start a Loop workspace from a Teams meeting".

Do you actually believe that creating branded presentations (from Microsoft's own examples) is something people do for "entertainment purposes"?

by andy81

3/31/2026 at 7:38:31 PM

Did Microsoft force you to follow the tutorials and use CoPilot for business?

by NetMageSCW

3/31/2026 at 9:12:15 PM

By advertising Copilot as capable of doing something they are guaranteeing the product is capable of it.

by adgjlsfhk1

3/31/2026 at 4:06:57 PM

If Copilot is for entertainment purposes only then why is https://office.com all about how you can use Copilot, and closes with the small print "Copilot Chat in the Microsoft 365 Copilot app is available for Microsoft 365 Enterprise, Academic, SMB, Personal and Family subscribers with a work, education, or personal account."

Why would they include a product for entertainment purposes only in the product they sell to large companies for doing work?

by jon-wood

3/31/2026 at 4:54:12 PM

Microsoft is pivoting to become an entertainment company, the Copilot being the final form of what Microsoft Bob has always wanted to become.

by WesolyKubeczek

3/31/2026 at 5:45:05 PM

There are 1698 words before that phrase.

Granted that this one document has a surprisingly clear language, but no, it's still not reasonable. Also, it was changed less than 6 months ago.

by marcosdumay

3/31/2026 at 4:02:50 PM

Sure, if you make that clear in all of your marketing rather than lying your ass off and then trying the "lol we didn’t really mean it" defense.

by Sharlin

3/31/2026 at 3:59:40 PM

If it’s in a locked cabinet in the downstairs bathroom with the ‘out of order’ sign on the door, guarded by a leopard?

by lazide

3/31/2026 at 4:04:47 PM

A disused lavatory?

by recursive

3/31/2026 at 4:16:08 PM

We can neither confirm nor deny on advice of counsel.

by lazide

3/31/2026 at 7:53:16 PM

I have frequently proposed a objective legal standard for false advertising that handles that: "Technically, your honor". If somebody says that in court, they lose.

The words they used, as commonly understood by the target audience, were intentionally crafted to be interpreted differently than what they were going to say they meant in court. They spent time, effort, and money, ran focus groups, and carefully selected and curated their words to be incorrectly interpreted by the target audience to reach knowingly false conclusions.

The correct standard should be that they spent time, effort, and money, ran focus groups, and carefully selected and curated their words to be correctly interpreted by the target audience to reach true conclusions. Their statements should only be accidentally incorrect in proportion to the time and effort spent crafting and distributing them.

"Technically, your honor", should be treated as the ethical abomination it is.

by Veserv

3/31/2026 at 3:36:28 PM

"Our software developers clearly were negligent, but we stashed some bullshit legalese saying 'No warranty express or implied' into a document no one will read so our bug-infested software is completely OK."

People in glass houses shouldn't throw stones.

by ThrowawayR2

3/31/2026 at 5:53:09 PM

As far as I can tell, this is only for the free personal plan, not any of the business offerings (ie not Copilot for M365) and Github Copilot is under a separate set of terms.

“These Terms don’t apply to Microsoft 365 Copilot apps or services unless that specific app or service says that these Terms apply.”

Think of Copilot being a suite of different products under the same overall banner and it starts to make (a bit) more sense.

by owenm

3/31/2026 at 6:16:18 PM

This should be the top comment.

by brunoborges

3/31/2026 at 6:11:23 PM

Not really since the clause in full is "Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk."

Are you saying that the business version cannot make mistakes and can be relied upon for important advice?

by harvey9

3/31/2026 at 6:32:27 PM

No, I’m saying that MS have different terms for their business and personal offerings (as do OpenAI and Anthropic).

To be fair to them, MS are quite open about accuracy for the business offerings, see here as one example:

https://learn.microsoft.com/en-us/copilot/microsoft-365/micr...

by owenm

3/31/2026 at 9:38:29 PM

So is Windows.

by jamesgill

3/31/2026 at 3:02:07 PM

I can hear the lawyers huddled around a conference table rolling the bones and chanting the sacred words to come up with that "get out of trouble free" card. It told your son he had terminal cancer and should kill himself... sorry, it clearly says for Entertainment Purposes only.

by jeffwask

3/31/2026 at 7:05:37 PM

Go to https://www.copilot.com/ and ask a question. You'll see from the answers that it is indeed for entertainment only. It is ridiculously behind ChatGPT, and I don't know how that can happen since Microsoft has access to the same models.

by lateforwork

3/31/2026 at 8:56:57 PM

Are you not entertained?!

by commandlinefan

3/31/2026 at 7:18:52 PM

it not as bad as in gpt 4.1 days, but i am wondering if it is just the system prompt or what is going on

by lousken

3/31/2026 at 3:32:54 PM

The section titled

> IMPORTANT DISCLOSURES & WARNINGS

Tells us:

> You may stop using Copilot at any time.

That's an odd thing to include in a ToS.

by sgbeal

3/31/2026 at 3:41:28 PM

I am working really hard to not start using Copilot.

And belive me, if you use any Microsoft products or services they really make it hard to avoid accidentally using the damn thing.

Including adding it to your office plan and then charging you 2x.

by throwa356262

3/31/2026 at 3:43:42 PM

Gotta love how they moved the "Create Email/meeting" buttons in Outlook mobile and stuck the Copilot button there so that you will hit it accidentally.

by Junk_Collector

3/31/2026 at 4:35:32 PM

I’m a Mac user and the only way to get Office 365 is a monthly subscription. Since there’s no subscription that doesn’t include CoPilot and since they hiked the price with the excuse that they’d added this thing I didn’t want, I just cancelled my subscription. A customer lost: hardly an issue, but if enough people do it, maybe they’ll get a clue and stop ramming this unwelcome abomination down our throats.

by qubex

3/31/2026 at 7:41:39 PM

I’ve only used it once, for WorkFlow creation but it seemed really useful there, but that may be more of an indictment of WorkFlow than an endorsement of CoPilot.

by NetMageSCW

3/31/2026 at 4:02:46 PM

Like when i went to my github account to withdraw all copilot consents - which i never used anyway

just to be greeted with an email that welcomed me to copilot and the free plan. No button or link to disable the thing.

by monegator

3/31/2026 at 4:18:51 PM

> No button or link to disable the thing.

The line i initially quoted:

> You may stop using Copilot at any time.

Was incomplete. It continues with what initially appears to be a non sequitur:

> You may stop using Copilot at any time. If you want to close your Microsoft Account, please see the Microsoft Services Agreement.

It may not be a non sequitur, but may well be the only way to "opt out" of Copilot.

by sgbeal

3/31/2026 at 7:36:41 PM

I don't even have a microsoft account! anything microsoft i had (like the ancient hotmail address) was deleted years ago

by monegator

3/31/2026 at 3:55:39 PM

104.3a A player can concede the game at any time.

by banannaise

3/31/2026 at 5:28:35 PM

But according to the Birmingham modifications of 1973, subsection 12.b, stroke 7a, a player so conceding is not deemed to have actually conceded unless they be within a finite number of hops from Mornington Crescent station at the time of the concession.

by mindcrime

3/31/2026 at 6:33:58 PM

No, as part of the Cameron rules of 2016, concession means concession, regardless of anything else (including whether or not it’s a good idea).

by d1sxeyes

3/31/2026 at 7:42:34 PM

Does that mean I can get an ice cream?

by NetMageSCW

3/31/2026 at 6:57:39 PM

> > You may stop using Copilot at any time.

> That's an odd thing to include in a ToS.

Maybe it's the only Microsoft product for which that's true? (It certainly feels that way, sometimes.)

by mcv

3/31/2026 at 3:51:22 PM

I doubt it is odd, I suspect almost every ToS has something similar.

by xnorswap

3/31/2026 at 3:52:37 PM

I really hope so. Now I must peruse all ToS that I have agreed in the past to ensure that they have an equivalent clause. I hope I'm not contractually obliged to keep using some random website or whatever for the rest of my life.

by Mordisquitos

3/31/2026 at 8:06:30 PM

Were you able to stop using Adobe software any anytime before they got in trouble for making cancelling so hard?

by kylehotchkiss

3/31/2026 at 9:07:46 PM

> Were you able to stop using Adobe software any anytime before they got in trouble for making cancelling so hard?

To be fair, "stop using" does not automatically imply "stop paying for a subscription".

by sgbeal

3/31/2026 at 5:34:06 PM

FYI: This is only for the "Cortana replacement" Copilot, not the other Copilots. This language doesn't appear in GitHub Copilot's Consumer Agreement, for example.

by nunez

3/31/2026 at 6:36:52 PM

Maybe they shouldn't name everything Copilot.

by therein

3/31/2026 at 7:07:47 PM

They should tell copilot then! It seems to disagree.

- ‚Are you for entertainment purposes only?‘

-‚Not at all — unless you want me to be. The short version: I’m not “for entertainment only.”‘

Edit: Ok I see it is legal framing to not be held liable, but can they just do that via ToS and let the tool itself promote something else?

by polyamid23

3/31/2026 at 7:12:59 PM

That’s exactly what an LLM made for entertainment purposes only would say!

by nashashmi

3/31/2026 at 7:38:54 PM

These terms too are pretty entertaning.

we can’t promise that any Copilot’s Responses won’t infringe someone else’s rights (like their copyrights, trademarks, or rights of privacy) or defame them.

You agree to indemnify us and hold us harmless (including our affiliates, employees and any other agents) from and against any claims, losses, and expenses (including attorneys' fees) arising from or relating to your use of Copilot

by chrisjj

3/31/2026 at 3:43:43 PM

a blanket "entertainment only" disclaimer likely wouldn't survive scrutiny for a product actively/relentlessly marketed as a productivity tool

by Raed667

3/31/2026 at 4:36:04 PM

depends how much judges are interested in bling.

by varispeed

3/31/2026 at 3:40:47 PM

I've been reading Jurassic Park recently. Hammond's monologue about expensive technology only being fundable via Entertainment seems very relevant.

by yoyohello13

3/31/2026 at 9:04:26 PM

Then get it off my laptop

by oldnetguy

3/31/2026 at 7:32:11 PM

"Don’t use bots or scrapers"

Says the bot based on scraped data

by i-e-b

3/31/2026 at 5:11:16 PM

If it is for entertainment purposes only, why am I not laughing when I use it?

by anshumankmr

3/31/2026 at 6:43:21 PM

Some people find being whipped while bound in leather to be entertaining.

by SoftTalker

3/31/2026 at 7:05:24 PM

[dead]

by cindyllm

3/31/2026 at 5:59:12 PM

You need a better sense of humour apparently.

by pwdisswordfishy

3/31/2026 at 8:40:10 PM

1. April is near. Perhaps copilot allowed himself to prank us all

by Surac

3/31/2026 at 5:40:18 PM

> Other people may send similar Prompts as yours, and they could get the same, similar, or different Responses and Creations.

This is why I'm skeptical about all this AI coding thing...

by kklisura

3/31/2026 at 3:53:46 PM

I thought a year ago when I bought a new laptop with 365 and Copilot integrated that they would make better use of AI and its integration. I can't think of when I actually used it and cancelled any subscription associated with it. On the otherhand, I use ChatGPT all the time.

by LurkandComment

3/31/2026 at 3:34:55 PM

How does this affect Copilot in VS 2022 / VS 2026? Because this is kind of insulting to a professional. I really wish Microsoft would learn to name things correctly. There's Copilot the ChatGPT-like service, then there's Copilot for Visual Studio which is not the same as far as I can tell.

by giancarlostoro

3/31/2026 at 6:11:49 PM

Cool, I'm going to put this disclaimer in my work email signature. So I'm never accountable for any mistakes.

by Smalltalker-80

3/31/2026 at 3:20:20 PM

> Copilot is for entertainment purposes only. It can make mistakes, and it may not work as intended. Don’t rely on Copilot for important advice. Use Copilot at your own risk.

> We don’t own Your Content, but we may use Your Content to operate Copilot and improve it. By using Copilot, you grant us permission to use Your Content, which means we can copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, edit, translate, and reformat it, and we can give those same rights to others who work on our behalf.

lol

by wxw

3/31/2026 at 3:44:55 PM

This is as good as when the engineer from the Claude team said they load their website in such a way as to protect against hostile actions such as scraping.

by Junk_Collector

3/31/2026 at 3:36:38 PM

Can I get this on a sticker to pass out anyone tries to shove copilot down my throat at work?

Maybe a shirt, could sell it on the Microsoft store even. Now that would be entertainment.

by nerdjon

3/31/2026 at 5:12:30 PM

Just today afternoon, I did read a bit trough Adobes EULA and I saw most of Adobes Software is not allowed to be used from children. I guess most (todays) software are not allowed for children because of the whole user tracking and spying.

by _trampeltier

3/31/2026 at 5:59:03 PM

It could also be that minors aren't allowed to sign contracts, which a EULA could maybe be considered (I'm not a lawyer)

by mghackerlady

3/31/2026 at 3:17:20 PM

To be clear this is only for the standalone Copilot chat or app and website; not for the “Copilot” services integrated into Office 365 etc.

by ar0

3/31/2026 at 3:25:28 PM

> To be clear this is only for the standalone Copilot chat or app and website; not for the “Copilot” services integrated into Office 365 etc.

The section titled "WHEN & WHERE THESE TERMS APPLY" includes:

> Conversations you have with Copilot through other Microsoft apps and websites

by sgbeal

3/31/2026 at 4:08:25 PM

Would be nice to know if it includes Github Copilot. I can't understand how to interpret "Copilot branded apps".

by rdsubhas

3/31/2026 at 4:14:40 PM

It says "through other Microsoft apps and websites," i.e. they reserve the right to include or remove it when and where they like throughout their whole product line (which includes github, of course), as well as:

- Conversations you have with Copilot through third-party apps and platforms

- Other Copilot-branded apps and services that link to these Terms

That first point (#4 in the original list) can cover all software, Copilot-branded or otherwise, which, even internally, uses Copilot (perhaps without your knowing so).

Github Copilot (to take your specific example) is both "other Microsoft apps and websites" and "Copilot-branded". So, yeah, those ToS undoubtedly apply to Github Copilot.

by sgbeal

3/31/2026 at 5:48:35 PM

Hilariously, immediately after I read this, my boss sends a global message to us reminding us that we 'need to be trying to integrate copilot into our jobs.'

by snu

3/31/2026 at 5:29:39 PM

I thought the title was a joke until I actually read the thing.

by jmugan

3/31/2026 at 6:24:03 PM

To us, all the profit. To you, all the risk.

by osmsucks

3/31/2026 at 7:14:03 PM

+1

Software in general is usually provided on an "as is" basis with the creator not taking responsibility for anything going wrong.

by alok-g

3/31/2026 at 3:28:39 PM

> Copilot may include advertising

by monegator

3/31/2026 at 5:20:51 PM

Worth noting that this is in the terms of use as of October 2025. This isn't "new".

by soupfordummies

3/31/2026 at 8:22:26 PM

And yet my licensed Visual Studio 2026 that's supposed to be for serious-face commercial development is rife with Copilot.

> You may stop using Copilot at any time.

But how? Microsoft has shoved it into so many products that I don't see how it's possible, without dropping them alltogether.

by cartoonfoxes

3/31/2026 at 8:32:00 PM

The link is pretty clear that it is only about copilot.com, not every product that has copilot in the name:

> These Terms apply to your use of “Copilot,” which includes:

> The standalone Copilot apps on your computer or mobile device

> The Copilot service we offer at copilot.microsoft.com, copilot.com, and copilot.ai

> Conversations you have with Copilot through other Microsoft apps and websites

> Conversations you have with Copilot through third-party apps and platforms

> Other Copilot-branded apps and services that link to these Terms

> These Terms don’t apply to Microsoft 365 Copilot apps or services unless that specific app or service says that these Terms apply.

by brookst

3/31/2026 at 6:03:23 PM

I might be alone with this, but I don't find it very entertaining.

by oytis

3/31/2026 at 7:47:18 PM

Well, I'm entertained!

by tasuki

3/31/2026 at 3:48:57 PM

Guys they're just disclaiming warranties relax

by staticautomatic

3/31/2026 at 5:55:46 PM

They unironically relaunch it as XBox Copilot tomorrow...

by ibejoeb

3/31/2026 at 4:14:34 PM

No way that holds up in court when they are marketing it for things other than entertainment.

by jrochkind1

3/31/2026 at 3:27:00 PM

They're just trying to pick up that Disney deal (Clippy rhymes with Mickey)

by maieuticagent

3/31/2026 at 5:57:59 PM

Do not taunt Happy Copilot Ball.

by hn_acc1

3/31/2026 at 3:23:26 PM

i like the way that when ai does something good of course the people who built it should make a lot of money but when it does something bad no one is responsible

by ratelimitsteve

3/31/2026 at 4:03:51 PM

Lots of that going around these days (and for many of the previous days, at least in the US)

by bradleyankrom

3/31/2026 at 6:40:22 PM

That one line is…doing A LOT of legal work.

by OfirMarom

3/31/2026 at 6:37:33 PM

I can't help but be reminded of Joe Pesci in Goodfellas:

"Funny how? I mean, funny like I’m a clown? I amuse you? I make you laugh? I’m here to fuckin’ amuse you? What do you mean funny, funny how?"

by pseudosavant

3/31/2026 at 6:41:44 PM

I've read the claim that he ad-libbed a lot of that too.

by SoftTalker

3/31/2026 at 6:36:14 PM

My employer does not allow me using software with entertainment function on company hardver.

Now what?! Do I have to uninstall Windows?

by mihaaly

3/31/2026 at 7:46:35 PM

No, but you can’t use CoPilot any more.

by NetMageSCW

3/31/2026 at 3:12:29 PM

If it's for entertainment purposes only then why is it being shoved down our throats at every opportunity???

by Simulacra

3/31/2026 at 3:15:04 PM

ARE YOU NOT ENTERTAINED?

by sheikhnbake

3/31/2026 at 5:41:49 PM

I legit laughed for couple minutes, thank you for this comment.

by kotaru

3/31/2026 at 4:00:05 PM

It's not for your entertainment, silly, it's for theirs.

by boothby

3/31/2026 at 3:14:02 PM

Mandatory Fun (TM)

by ranger_danger

3/31/2026 at 6:24:05 PM

One of the most toxic TOS I have ever had the misfortune of reading.

by OrvalWintermute

3/31/2026 at 5:16:05 PM

So they finally admit that it's just a toy? Where does that leave all the mega-"productive" developers?

by classified

3/31/2026 at 4:51:46 PM

Non-exact software will be causing sleepless nights for non-exact legal writers.

by j45

3/31/2026 at 5:17:18 PM

I should ask it to produce an image of Satya Nadella in Maximus garb yelling "are you not entertained?!"

by caycep

3/31/2026 at 5:20:09 PM

[dead]

by soupfordummies

3/31/2026 at 4:07:01 PM

Ah yes, the new "for tobacco use only" of tech.

by ashleyn

3/31/2026 at 4:20:28 PM

I told you so, dear LLM evangelists.

by anthk

3/31/2026 at 7:26:48 PM

But they know better. They probably asked an LLM.

by tempodox

3/31/2026 at 6:00:20 PM

The ownership section is hilarious (tldr your content is not ours, but we can do anything you could do with it except being liable)

"We don’t own Your Content... By using Copilot, you grant us permission to use Your Content, which means we can copy, distribute, transmit, publicly display, publicly perform, edit, translate, and reformat it, and we can give those same rights to others who work on our behalf."

by catlikesshrimp

3/31/2026 at 2:30:07 PM

Seems fine to me for the consumer facing product terms lol

by Handy-Man