Microsoft doesn't "ignore" the license, there is a disagreement on what the license and copyright actually mandates. Those are quite different things.
Given the current state of the law and how licenses are written it's impossible declare that "yes, this is absolutely illegal". People may not like it, and (arguably) it may go against the spirit, but that is also a very different thing. Right now the situation is just ambiguous and unclear.
All of this absolutely matters, because the solution to "Microsoft is acting illegally" is a lawsuit (which, I believe, is already underway) while the solution to "the license and law is unclear" is different licences and/or laws. The solutions are completely different.
Software licenses have always been a great area. At best this argument is that it's OK for Microsoft (and others) to abuse licensed content created by others because proving it was technically done illegally is difficult.
When Copilot inserts a code snippet that matches perfectly with one of the samples it was trained on, and that sample had a copyleft license, how is that not a license violation? Or is the main argument that copyleft licenses aren't enforceable in general?
> Given the current state of the law and how licenses are written it's impossible declare that "yes, this is absolutely illegal."
This is a reason for Microsoft (which you have given to them) that explains why they're ignoring the license, and why you think it's fine. It's a common refrain: "Everything is so complicated." It doesn't change the fact that they're ignoring the license.
The argument boils down to "we think it's fair use". This has been explained quite a few times. Will that hold up in court? I don't know. Should that hold up in court? Each can have their own opinion on that. But it's definitely been explained, as well as discussed at great length many times before on HN.
Given the current state of the law and how licenses are written it's impossible declare that "yes, this is absolutely illegal". People may not like it, and (arguably) it may go against the spirit, but that is also a very different thing. Right now the situation is just ambiguous and unclear.
All of this absolutely matters, because the solution to "Microsoft is acting illegally" is a lawsuit (which, I believe, is already underway) while the solution to "the license and law is unclear" is different licences and/or laws. The solutions are completely different.