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Can this be used to host illegal content? I.e.: fork a popular repo, commit a pirated book to the fork, delete the fork, use the original repo to access the pir

by thih9 2y ago

Can this be used to host illegal content? I.e.: fork a popular repo, commit a pirated book to the fork, delete the fork, use the original repo to access the pirated book? What would github do after receiving a DMCA request in that case?

er4hn 2y ago
One can safely assume they will find a way to follow the law rather than mumble about technically this is working as intended.
- InsomniacL 2y ago
  > One can safely assume With something as nuance as this, I wouldn't safely assume all processes, especially one from a compliance (none-technical) department account for it.
lnrd 2y ago
That looks like the kind of loophole that could get GH to do something about this.
- arccy 2y ago
  they have the ability to do essentially git gc and drop unreachable commits
nikeee 2y ago
I think something like this was done when the takedown of yt-dl happened
Arnavion 2y ago
I've seen bots make that kind of PR spam a few times. They'll make a PR that adds a random HTML or markdown file or whatever containing gambling spam or whatever and then presumably post links to github.com/$yourorg/$yourrepo/blob/$sha/thatfile I can't link an example because all the ones I know about were nuked by GH Support.
remram 2y ago
It can be used to make it look like another project posted the content (though there is a warning: "This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository."). You can't host anything this way that you can't already host in your own repository, and GitHub does have a way to remove content that will make it inaccessible, whether in your repository or through another.
majorchord 2y ago
>Can this be used to host illegal content? It already is. Even to github org's own repos. Any time you make a PR, the /tree/ link to it stays valid forever, even if the repo author removes it.
sixhobbits 2y ago
https://xkcd.com/1494/ https://xkcd.com/1494/

by thih9 2y ago

er4hn 2y ago

One can safely assume they will find a way to follow the law rather than mumble about technically this is working as intended.

InsomniacL 2y ago
> One can safely assume With something as nuance as this, I wouldn't safely assume all processes, especially one from a compliance (none-technical) department account for it.

lnrd 2y ago

That looks like the kind of loophole that could get GH to do something about this.

arccy 2y ago
they have the ability to do essentially git gc and drop unreachable commits

nikeee 2y ago

I think something like this was done when the takedown of yt-dl happened

Arnavion 2y ago

I've seen bots make that kind of PR spam a few times. They'll make a PR that adds a random HTML or markdown file or whatever containing gambling spam or whatever and then presumably post links to github.com/$yourorg/$yourrepo/blob/$sha/thatfile I can't link an example because all the ones I know about were nuked by GH Support.

remram 2y ago

It can be used to make it look like another project posted the content (though there is a warning: "This commit does not belong to any branch on this repository, and may belong to a fork outside of the repository."). You can't host anything this way that you can't already host in your own repository, and GitHub does have a way to remove content that will make it inaccessible, whether in your repository or through another.

majorchord 2y ago

>Can this be used to host illegal content? It already is. Even to github org's own repos. Any time you make a PR, the /tree/ link to it stays valid forever, even if the repo author removes it.

sixhobbits 2y ago

https://xkcd.com/1494/ https://xkcd.com/1494/