Im probably not going to switch anytime soon (ive been on GH for over 10 years now), but I wonder if there is something like a Github Alternative?
With all the takedowns (open source or otherwise) occurring lately, I would rather like my code to be somewhere safe-ish.
Minecraft’s modding ecosystem was a big one, quite awhile ago, now.
I think folks are expecting some action against popular emulators, with Nintendo going lawsuit happy.
Nintendo took down quite a few smaller repos too. And links to the Link remaster project. Plus the app Tachiyomi Extensions. Ive just been noticing 2023-2024 has had an increase of code removals. Github is very public now, and any repo that circumvents any kind of hardware/software restrictions is getting more scrutiny.
Do you really think a smaller service will do a better job defending against Nintendo?
I wish there were more options too but I don’t see GitHub as being at fault here. The law is pretty clear on takedown notices and defending Fair Use claims is horrifically expensive.
There are smaller services that have not been taken down and have been around for over a decade. It pays be under the radar.
Plus I don’t want to put all my repos under just one service. GH is good don’t get me wrong, but if it ever goes under or starts doing sketchy things that I don’t like, I need an alternative.
My experience is not much flies under the radar anymore - this stuff is heavily automated and even legitimate content is often accused of infringing (I’ve stopped buying stock photos for example… because using them is likely to result in being accused of copyright infringement and proving you purchased a license is far more effort than they are worth).
https://github.com/github/transparency/blob/main/data/dmca/dmca_takedowns_by_month.csv
That’s their DMCA takedown report (there is also a “transparency center” with pretty charts)… hundreds of takedowns every month, with some of them fought and re-instated. I’d bet smaller sites don’t have any reinstatements. It was last updated 4 months ago, hopefully another update is coming soon.
Definitely a good idea to have eggs in other baskets but there’s a pretty good chance all of them will be taken down at once and GitHub seems like it’d be more likely to come back if you have a defensible case.