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Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

news.ycombinator.com

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Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#41

Post by baobabKoodaa »

camsjams wrote: post #37
baobabKoodaa wrote: post #32

Earlier quoted context omitted.

That's not how MIT license works

So you're suggesting GitHub should determine the total "average" license of a private repo and determine if your fork is indeed valid or not, before revoking access.

> So you're suggesting GitHub should determine the total "average" license of a private repo and determine if your fork is indeed valid or not, before revoking access.

No, I'm not suggesting that. In fact, I didn't say anything about what GitHub should or shouldn't do. My comment related to how licenses work, not how GitHub works or should work.

In particular, I was responding to this comment:

> It's not your code or data, it's your previous employers IP and they determine who has access and who doesn't and what licenses do or don't apply.

The claim in the above comment is incorrect. I stated that the claim is incorrect. That is unrelated to the issue of how GitHub should deal with private repo forks.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#43

Post by pavon »

gregwebs wrote: post #33

This unfortunately makes sense because it is a private repo. Even if a repo is labeled as being MIT and has an MIT license in it, it still may contain other code of a different license. Github could do better by warning the repo owner when they delete a private repo. Github could ask the repo owner if they want to convert it to public first (a "set it free" option) or otherwise give the option to avoid deleting the f…

Yes, and under most FLOSS licenses (including BSD/MIT/LGPL/GPL/AGPL), companies are perfectly free to maintain modified versions of the software internally with no obligation to publish the source externally, until/unless they distribute the modified software externally (or allow external use the software remotely in the case of AGPL). All of the modifications are copyright the company and it is their choice whether to release them publicly. Employees having access to the modifications doesn't mean that the modifications have been licensed to them under the original license, and thus doesn't give them permission to distribute the modified software to others under that license.

Essentially what I just said is the same as what you did. The private modifications cannot be assumed to be under the same license as the original software. Gitlab has no way of knowing all these details, and have promised to keep private repos private, so their current policy is the correct one.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#44

Post by sidewndr46 »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #13

I have a number of git repos that the original developers deleted - because I sync’d them to a usb stick with gitea. I think that is how you have to do it - never entrust a service, especially a free one, with your only copy of anything you value. If the YouTube algorithm nukes your account and all your videos, you should be ready to upload them to a new account. Same with anything else digital. My current is standar…

I'm reasonably certain that if YouTube deletes your account uploading them to a new account is expressly forbidden.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#45

Post by Gordonjcp »

sidewndr46 wrote: post #44
zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #13

I have a number of git repos that the original developers deleted - because I sync’d them to a usb stick with gitea. I think that is how you have to do it - never entrust a service, especially a free one, with your only copy of anything you value. If the YouTube algorithm nukes your account and all your videos, you should be ready to upload them to a new account. Same with anything else digital. My current is standar…

I'm reasonably certain that if YouTube deletes your account uploading them to a new account is expressly forbidden.

How exactly can they stop you?

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#46

Post by kitkat_new »

gregwebs wrote: post #33

This unfortunately makes sense because it is a private repo. Even if a repo is labeled as being MIT and has an MIT license in it, it still may contain other code of a different license. Github could do better by warning the repo owner when they delete a private repo. Github could ask the repo owner if they want to convert it to public first (a "set it free" option) or otherwise give the option to avoid deleting the f…

"This unfortunately makes sense because it is a private repo."

I disagree. I expect a (i.e. my) fork to be independent of the original repository, no matter if it is private or not.

It's enough if a fork of a private repository is private then too.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#47

Post by yunohn »

Gordonjcp wrote: post #45
sidewndr46 wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm reasonably certain that if YouTube deletes your account uploading them to a new account is expressly forbidden.

How exactly can they stop you?

What do you mean? They have extensive content ID/checks.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#48

Post by theossuary »

josephcsible wrote: post #42

Never use the fork feature on private repos. Instead, clone the repo locally, create a fresh GitHub repo, and push your local clone manually to that. Doing so will protect you from this attack.

It'd be nice to be able to manually specify an upstream for a repo, that's the main benefit of forking in the UI.

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#49

Post by wjdp »

zxcvbn4038 wrote: post #13

I have a number of git repos that the original developers deleted - because I sync’d them to a usb stick with gitea. I think that is how you have to do it - never entrust a service, especially a free one, with your only copy of anything you value. If the YouTube algorithm nukes your account and all your videos, you should be ready to upload them to a new account. Same with anything else digital. My current is standar…

For this I have a NAS with a pretty basic script that runs nightly to clone any new repos I have and update those already backed up. They get organised into a directory structure mirroring that of Github: `./github.com/user/repo`

If of any use to anyone else: https://gist.github.com/wjdp/a20cb15f76b651124b3b27cde06d121...

Re: Tell HN: GitHub will delete your private repo if you lose access to the original

#50

Post by kitkat_new »

IncRnd wrote: post #27

> Your private repository baobabKoodaa/laaketutka-scripts (forked from futurice/how-to-get-healthy) has been deleted because you are no longer a collaborator on futurice/how-to-get-healthy. > and now it's gone... why? Because it was a private not a public repo.

so what?

Private doesn't imply (common sense) that the original repository has power over any fork.

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