4 ms·

What exactly would they do if I sent them a DMCA takedown notice as soon as I requested that my package be unpublished?

kibwen 11y ago
They could respond by linking you to their terms of service, which explicitly gives them the right to distribute anything that you upload. (You might be able to get around this by pretending that someone else uploaded code that you authored without your permission, implying that they never possessed the right to upload the code in the first place. This is probably illegal, but false DMCA takedowns happen all the time e.g. on Youtube and I've never actually heard of anyone being prosecuted for it (unfortunately).)
- LamaOfRuin 11y ago
  Parenthetical is my point exactly. In practice, this would require them going to court themselves, which I don't expect them to do. There are also many legitimate and well intentioned possibilities that could lead copyrighted, unlicensed code onto NPM in which case they would have no right, regardless of their ToS, to redistributed it. I don't like the law, but it is what it is, and I wouldn't expect NPM to actually back up their new official policy if push came to shove, because as soon as they try to they lose safe harbor.
striking 11y ago
If you published it under an open source license, you have given them a license to keep the code. Probably nothing, except a DMCA counter-notice.
- LamaOfRuin 11y ago
  That would require that they themselves had a basis for a good faith claim, under penalty of perjury, that I was the original copyright owner. That opens them up to liability (as opposed to youtube, which just makes it easy for uploaders to file counterclaim notices). I sincerely doubt NPM would like to shoulder that burden. By uploading it, I have in fact given them a license, as far as I am able, but that doesn't matter if I never had the rights and they get sued for infringement.
laughinghan 11y ago
What would people do if you sent everyone using your package saying it was pirated, the rightful author never open-sourced it? This seems solidly in the realm of copyright law and out of the realm of NPM's policies.

They could respond by linking you to their terms of service, which explicitly gives them the right to distribute anything that you upload. (You might be able to get around this by pretending that someone else uploaded code that you authored without your permission, implying that they never possessed the right to upload the code in the first place. This is probably illegal, but false DMCA takedowns happen all the time e.g. on Youtube and I've never actually heard of anyone being prosecuted for it (unfortunately).)

LamaOfRuin 11y ago
Parenthetical is my point exactly. In practice, this would require them going to court themselves, which I don't expect them to do. There are also many legitimate and well intentioned possibilities that could lead copyrighted, unlicensed code onto NPM in which case they would have no right, regardless of their ToS, to redistributed it. I don't like the law, but it is what it is, and I wouldn't expect NPM to actually back up their new official policy if push came to shove, because as soon as they try to they lose safe harbor.

striking 11y ago

If you published it under an open source license, you have given them a license to keep the code. Probably nothing, except a DMCA counter-notice.

LamaOfRuin 11y ago
That would require that they themselves had a basis for a good faith claim, under penalty of perjury, that I was the original copyright owner. That opens them up to liability (as opposed to youtube, which just makes it easy for uploaders to file counterclaim notices). I sincerely doubt NPM would like to shoulder that burden. By uploading it, I have in fact given them a license, as far as I am able, but that doesn't matter if I never had the rights and they get sued for infringement.

laughinghan 11y ago

What would people do if you sent everyone using your package saying it was pirated, the rightful author never open-sourced it? This seems solidly in the realm of copyright law and out of the realm of NPM's policies.