If my code is licensed under terms , that’s the permission .
If you use my licensed work then yes, you do need to follow the terms of the license .
The issue of license / contract / copyright is messy. It doesn’t ever seem (in the USA anyway ) to be definitively answered / “solved.”
I chose AGPL v3 only on purpose.
Co pilot and users thereof (so now two levels removed ) utilizing code in whatever work are stealing my work (unless it’s AGPL v3 licensed ). The adding of intermediaries (and the most likely unknown and with no way to know) infringing is going to be very difficult to mitigate. It’s like truly unknowingly buying stolen property,
If I use it under fair use, there is nothing you can do about it.
The fourth factor of fair use is the effect on the value of your work. If I'm not affecting the works value because there is no market for it, because it has no commercial value, you are going to have a very hard time defeating this argument in court.
Fair use is a major part of copyright law. I do not have to ask permission to use your work.
For you to win in court you have to overcome fair use, you have to overcome innocent infringer, you have to overcome no damages.
Anyone leaving comments saying that there's an obvious way a court would rule on a copyright case involving those 3 things is wrong.