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

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

#61

Post by nobody9999 »

I completely understand your frustration. It's a dick move to delete your content without (at least) giving you a chance to archive that work.

At the same time this situation points up an important issue: if you don't own/control the infrastructure where your data lives, you don't own that data. Full stop.

If you host your data "in the cloud" (i.e., on someone else's servers) then you don't own that data, or at least not any copies stored there).

I'm not advocating for any specific action/solution in this comment (see my comment history for more about centralization vs. decentralization and "the cloud"), but the above is an important consideration, especially WRT long-term storage of your data.

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

#62

Post by [deleted] »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #32
bastardoperator wrote: post #31

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. Forks have worked like this for awhile and I consider it a feature, especially in cases like this.

That's not how MIT license works

[deleted]

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

#63

Post by bastardoperator »

baobabKoodaa wrote: post #32
bastardoperator wrote: post #31

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. Forks have worked like this for awhile and I consider it a feature, especially in cases like this.

That's not how MIT license works

No, but that's how private repos work. It's really hard to open source code from a repo no one has access to.

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

#64

Post by TheRealPomax »

andyjohnson0 wrote: post #40
rezonant wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It will only be deleted if the repo you fork from is a private repository. The documentation [1] covers the other scenarios, in all of which you keep your copy of the code (including when the public repository is made private later). [1] https://docs.github.com/en/pull-requests/collaborating-with-...

> It will only be deleted if the repo you fork from is a private repository This makes sense. Thank you for clarifying that important detail. It seems to be missing from the parts of the discussion I've read here.

No, it doesn't. It only makes sense until you stop and go "Wait, no, hold on a minute. Why would they delete the fork instead of simply severing the fork relation in their fork relations table?".

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

#66

Post by MonkeyMalarky »

no_butterscotch wrote: post #18
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…

> 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. Do you know if this is a common occurrence? Also, I'm only a YouTube viewer and am not familiar with all the creator tools, problems, communities, etc. But would a creator really re-upload all their back-catalog if deleted? Just to try to get back to views and things…

There were a whole bunch of artist and genre specific mixes I used to listen to on yt that are gone now. The uploaders accounts have all been nuked too. The sad thing is I can listen to it all on Spotify but it's not the same.. the creator's did not insignificant work to mix the songs together.

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

#67

Post by Gordonjcp »

yunohn wrote: post #47
Gordonjcp wrote: post #45

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How exactly can they stop you?

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

Post it somewhere else. Youtube is largely a waste of time, unless you're some right-wing idiot scamming money out of teenagers.

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

#68

Post by shagie »

xigoi wrote: post #55
shagie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you worked at a company and had a fork of a private repo that company maintained of some software... do you want employees who have left to have their access to the repos removed? or an email that says that it will be removed?

What prevents them from having the code locally?

Same nothing that prevents a person from copying it onto a USB stick before they leave.

However, that's not GitHub's problem. GitHub is "told" (by removing the person's access from the repo) that they shouldn't have access to the repository or its code. It is within GitHub's ability to remove access to their fork and remove it.

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

#69

Post by Barrin92 »

agolio wrote: post #24
fragmede wrote: post #12

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“But the plans were on display…” “On display? I eventually had to go down to the cellar to find them.” “That’s the display department.” “With a flashlight.” “Ah, well, the lights had probably gone.” “So had the stairs.” “But look, you found the notice, didn’t you?” “Yes,” said Arthur, “yes I did. It was on display in the bottom of a locked filing cabinet stuck in a disused lavatory with a sign on the door saying ‘Bew…

To clarify the appropriateness of this analogy: This is unexpected behaviour from Github here which may (and has, by the anecdote of OP) cause permanent data loss. Documentation is not good enough, as users should not have been expected to have read the entire documentation.

I don't think it's an unexpected at all given that the original repo was private, not just the fork. Secondly a GitHub "user" isn't really a user in the consumer sense. They're a developer, as a developer/professional you can be expected to consult the documentation of a tool you use so you understand default behavior.

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

#70

Post by filoleg »

xigoi wrote: post #55
shagie wrote: post #35

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If you worked at a company and had a fork of a private repo that company maintained of some software... do you want employees who have left to have their access to the repos removed? or an email that says that it will be removed?

What prevents them from having the code locally?

> What prevents them from having the code locally?

Likely lack of initial intent and effort.

Just like having firewalls and the most recent security updates doesn't mean that you are inpenetrable. After all, the most common attack vector is the good old phishing email tactics and other ways of social engineering someone anyway. However, it doesn't mean that you shouldn't have a firewall (or other ways of defending your server) or that you should neglect timely security updates.

There are layers to this. Sure, someone who had an intent to do it from the start could've cloned the repo locally ahead of time. But for a lot of people it could be a crime of opportunity. Or it could also be that their account with access to the fork on github gets compromised later and a malicious third party got access to it.

My point is, having this restriction on forks won't prevent a determined attacker from getting it preserved locally ahead of time, you are correct. But it will prevent a lot of other unwanted scenarios that could result from not having the current restriction on forks of repos that went private.

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