7 ms·
While it's fair to call out the owner of any property when something like this happens, the emphasis of "Microsoft" in the headline seems to imply that this is
by lucideer 7y ago
While it's fair to call out the owner of any property when something like this happens, the emphasis of "Microsoft" in the headline seems to imply that this is some newly introduced policy since the acquisition.
As far as I'm aware, Github has been honouring government takedowns of this nature since long before they were acquired by Microsoft.
- Operyl 7y agoThe way I read it on the article, with punctuation, I don’t think it was necessarily intended like that? It’s in parentheses “Microsoft (GitHub)”. I don’t read Spanish fluently, though, so perhaps I’m not grasping it entirely. It felt like they were just adding context.
- giancarlostoro 7y ago> Microsoft (GitHub) blocks the Tsunami Democràtic to avoid the issues of their 'app' Is how I'd translate it and depending on who you are, you might just ignore the GitHub bit if you have no idea who that is and just assume Microsoft's doing this outright. It is confusing, but the subtitle specifically calls GitHub a service owned by Microsoft. They then mention since when Microsoft has owned GitHub, which I'm not sure how accurate it is or isn't. Is it wholly owned by Microsoft at this time? Though as others have said, it's an existing policy.
- freeone3000 7y agoYes, GitHub is 100% owned by Microsoft. The date in the article is correct.
- giancarlostoro 7y agoThanks, I wasn't sure the state of the buyout.
- wayoutthere 7y agoIn the first paragraph, they say "GitHub, the service owned by Microsoft since June 2018, has begun to block access to the repository that hosts the web page and the application from Spain."
- hiccuphippo 7y agoThe article is aimed at regular people who's probably not familiar with GitHub but surely know Microsoft. Maybe they should have written it "GitHub (Microsoft)" instead.
- hnuser77 7y agoIt would be more clear for everyone to call it Microsoft Github at all times.
- raxxorrax 7y agoI don't know the details here, but there can be takedown notices from governments that I certainly wouldn't want a software repository to agree to. I think we would need a solution for this problem of central repositories.
- lucideer 7y agoIANAL but it's a question of legal jurisdiction. Github is a business selling to Spanish users, so presumably are beholden to Spanish law. Github also have a HQ in Amsterdam and likely there's some further ramifications for those based in an EU states in terms of compliance with laws of respective EU states
- hiccuphippo 7y agoThat's the beauty of git. You just need to: git add remote plan-b one-of-dozens-of-git-hosts-or-your-own-server git push plan-b master And then let people know of your new repo(s).
- diggan 7y ago> As far as I'm aware, Github has been honouring government takedowns of this nature since long before they were acquired by Microsoft. What makes me worried is that this was not a normal takedown where GitHub thought the content was harmful for their platform. It seems it's only geographically blocked, as in, not available for people in Spain. So GitHub thinks the repository is fine, just that it's not fine in Spain specifically. This indicates that it's more hairy than just "it was harmful for GitHub"
- DangerousPie 7y agoIt was a warrant issued by a Spanish court that Github legally had to comply with. So Github did the minimum it could do, which was to block the website within Spain.
- fauigerzigerk 7y agoThe article seems somewhat unclear on that. First it says: Después de que un juez decidiese bloquear sus direcciones web, obligando a sus gestores a migrar dominios y buscar nuevo alojamiento, ahora ha sido GitHub, el servicio propiedad de Microsoft desde junio de 2018, el que ha acabado por bloquear el acceso al repositorio que alojaba la web y la aplicación de la plataforma desde España. but then: Pese a que el servicio de 'software' libre estaba entre los objetivos de las autoridades por dar cobijo a la plataforma independentista, fuentes de Microsoft España han confirmado a Teknautas que ellos no han recibido ninguna petición por parte de las fuerzas y cuerpos de seguridad del Estado para cerrar los repositorios de Tsunami por lo que la decisión se ha tomado a nivel internacional. I'm not sure exactly what legal obligation Github actually had.
- DangerousPie 7y agoCould you summarise those paragraphs in English? I am basing my comment on the takedown notice posted on Github, which sounded like they did not have much of an option. edit: based on the responses below that just says that Microsoft Spain didn't receive a request, not that Microsoft global didn't receive one. And otherwise, where would the request that Github published have come from?!
- cosarara 7y agoThey have an official repo with all the government takedown letters: https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns https://github.com/github/gov-takedowns (Only from China, Russia and Spain at the moment).
- kozhevnikov 7y agoI find it interesting that they removed user and repo names from the Spanish notice, but kept links in the Chinese and Russian ones.
- starfox64_ 7y agoGDPR
- chrismeller 7y agoThey don’t include the court order itself, but it wouldn’t surprise me if there were some additional clause (similar to the gag order in a US NSL) that forbids Github from revealing the specific target of the order.
- tomjen3 7y agoIn that case, how would it possibly have any legal effect in the US?
- chrismeller 7y agoThey restricted access to the repo itself in the jurisdiction covered by it. Their takedown repo isn’t restricted, so it makes sense that they would just redact the relevant parts so it’s obvious they were forced to take down something. Kind of a lesser of evils. Yes, we could blacklist all of Spain from seeing the takedown request and publish it in its entirety. Instead a bit of a screw you to the Spanish government. We can’t say what we had to blacklist, but we had to blacklist something, so wink wink, nudge nudge.
- deleted 7y ago
- xondono 7y agoIt’s a mainstream newspaper, nobody of the general public would understand what or who is github if it wasn’t written like that
- jedimastert 7y agoI mean, I really don't think "Microsoft's Github" does anything to explain what Github is to the laymen.
- blotter_paper 7y agoIt gives them the context that this is a decision from a big tech company, not just some startup they haven't heard of.
- diffeomorphism 7y agoAnd the laymen doesn't care and it is not relevant to the story what a "github" is. It is something by Microsoft that apparently is important for apps. Nothing more you need to know.
- Angostura 7y agoAs a newspaper editor you have to be aware that each story will be read by both specialists and non-specialists. This headline attempts to convey information to both.
- reallydontask 7y agoIf you ask the average person about GitHub they won't know what you are talking about, everybody knows Microsoft though, that's the only reason.
- buboard 7y agoYeah in reality it's the Spanish Military Police where complaints should be submitted
- ojosilva 7y agoNot the Military Police. The Guardia Civil, the takedown petitioner, is one of the two Spanish national police forces, the Military Police is a different corps entirely which belongs to the Army. The Guardia Civil is similar to the Gendarmerie corps from many countries, such as France. However it does follow a military-style rank structure, which nothing out of this world for a police force.
- Bayart 7y agoBoth Guardia Civil and Gendarmerie are part of the Army (but take orders from a civilian hierarchy) and are strictly speaking military police. But they don't police the military, which is what you probably had in mind.
- ojosilva 7y agoWell, first and foremost they are not the Military Police. The OP seems to use that terminology for a hyperbolic effect, I find this attitude very frustrating giving the sensitive aspect of the situation in Catalonia. Secondly, they are not part of the Army, they are self-described as a "full bodied police force" [1] and they report directly to the Ministry of Interior and only report to Defense in case they take part in a armed forces mission (article 9b of this law: [2]), which is seldom the case. Like I said they do have a military-style rank structure, which they describe as for "efficiency for performing our duties" or "military nature" [1] as they were created as an infantry division back two centuries ago. [1] http://www.guardiacivil.es/en/institucional/Conocenos/idcorporativa/naturalezami/index.html http://www.guardiacivil.es/en/institucional/Conocenos/idcorp... [2] http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/lo2-1986.t2.html http://noticias.juridicas.com/base_datos/Admin/lo2-1986.t2.h...
- dang 7y agoMost likely they put that Microsoft in the title because the general audience hasn't heard of GitHub. We don't need it here though.