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I don't fully understand what going on here. I assume by "I have no means of logging into the alt account" they meant they lost the login info? "I absolutely

I don't fully understand what going on here. I assume by "I have no means of logging into the alt account" they meant they lost the login info? "I absolutely do not want this activity linked to my main account." What does this mean? How would it link to their main account in anyway, regardless of this request?

searchableguy 5y ago
They may not have changed their git email when committing from the looks of it. Which could be associated with them.
hooksfordays 5y ago
“zmessenger-dev” is, I believe, the “alt account” they lost the login info to. Their main account, presumably tied to their identity, was used to author a commit that was pushed the DMCA’d repo. They later lost access to the alt (zmessenger) and so cannot remove the repo. This is possible since GitHub attributes commits to certain accounts based on the email that authors the commit, so they used an email tied to their main account to author the commit. Only the email is actually attached to the commit though, GitHub just associates the account based on a lookup. They then push the commit to the repo using their ssh or password authentication for zmessenger, which they later lose, and so they can no longer alter the repository and remove the offending commit/email
barosl 5y ago
GitHub identifies commits only by their associated email addresses, and it is easy to manipulate them. This has a consequence that anyone can masquerade as any others.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10005577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10005577
arglebarglegar 5y ago
the inaccessible alt account contained some identifying information this person wanted to remove, so as the copyright owner they issued a DMCA takedown request
t0ps0il 5y ago
> What does this mean? How would it link to their main account in anyway, regardless of this request? Git adds some author information to each commit [1]. You can set those values project by project, and you can also set them globally. To set a name and email to default to on all repos, you'd do this: `git config --global user.name "Topsoil"` `git config --global user.email "topsoil@example.com"` To set different committer info for a repo, you'd run the same commands without the `--global` flag while in the root directory of the project. When this person got re-interested in their project, they decided to squash all the commits into one new commit, but forgot to change their name and email on the repo and as a result exposed their real identity when they published the code on GitHub. I had to look up what f-list was, and it seems to be some kind of furry role-playing community? (i didn't do any research other than briefly looking at the first page of google) so i understand why this person DCMA'd themself. [1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_commit_information https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_commit_information
- zubspace 5y ago
  I recently learned, that you're able to switch the git user dynamically based on the folder the repository resides in, by using the includeif directive in your gitconfig. [1] This is very useful, if you have separate accounts, for example a business and a personal account. [1] https://gist.github.com/Icaruk/f024a18093dc28ec1588cfb90efc32f7 https://gist.github.com/Icaruk/f024a18093dc28ec1588cfb90efc3...
  - t0ps0il 5y ago
    I also recently learned this... just now. Thanks for sharing.

searchableguy 5y ago

They may not have changed their git email when committing from the looks of it. Which could be associated with them.

hooksfordays 5y ago

“zmessenger-dev” is, I believe, the “alt account” they lost the login info to. Their main account, presumably tied to their identity, was used to author a commit that was pushed the DMCA’d repo. They later lost access to the alt (zmessenger) and so cannot remove the repo. This is possible since GitHub attributes commits to certain accounts based on the email that authors the commit, so they used an email tied to their main account to author the commit. Only the email is actually attached to the commit though, GitHub just associates the account based on a lookup. They then push the commit to the repo using their ssh or password authentication for zmessenger, which they later lose, and so they can no longer alter the repository and remove the offending commit/email

barosl 5y ago

GitHub identifies commits only by their associated email addresses, and it is easy to manipulate them. This has a consequence that anyone can masquerade as any others.[1] [1] https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10005577 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=10005577

arglebarglegar 5y ago

the inaccessible alt account contained some identifying information this person wanted to remove, so as the copyright owner they issued a DMCA takedown request

t0ps0il 5y ago

> What does this mean? How would it link to their main account in anyway, regardless of this request? Git adds some author information to each commit [1]. You can set those values project by project, and you can also set them globally. To set a name and email to default to on all repos, you'd do this: `git config --global user.name "Topsoil"` `git config --global user.email "topsoil@example.com"` To set different committer info for a repo, you'd run the same commands without the `--global` flag while in the root directory of the project. When this person got re-interested in their project, they decided to squash all the commits into one new commit, but forgot to change their name and email on the repo and as a result exposed their real identity when they published the code on GitHub. I had to look up what f-list was, and it seems to be some kind of furry role-playing community? (i didn't do any research other than briefly looking at the first page of google) so i understand why this person DCMA'd themself. [1] https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_commit_information https://git-scm.com/docs/git-commit#_commit_information

zubspace 5y ago
I recently learned, that you're able to switch the git user dynamically based on the folder the repository resides in, by using the includeif directive in your gitconfig. [1] This is very useful, if you have separate accounts, for example a business and a personal account. [1] https://gist.github.com/Icaruk/f024a18093dc28ec1588cfb90efc32f7 https://gist.github.com/Icaruk/f024a18093dc28ec1588cfb90efc3...
- t0ps0il 5y ago
  I also recently learned this... just now. Thanks for sharing.