this post was submitted on 27 Nov 2024
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There is no "open" alternative for... the exact reasons some code is removed from Github/Lab/Bucket/whatever.
Someone submits a DMCA request or something similar? Microsoft and so forth will process that and decide if it is valid and so forth.
If you are running your own instance? That request goes to you and you probably don't have lawyers or just the willpower to determine if it is valid or not.
And the federation approach further complicates that. Because good luck explaining the concept of federation to a judge who thinks everyone who uses a computer is a hacker and doesn't understand why a DMCA to one instance didn't propagate to your instance and why it is an honest mistake. All while the Nintendos of the world are arguing for your wages to be garnished for the rest of your life.
And the other aspect is what anyone who runs even a semi-public instance of... anything learns. People are monsters. If you have image uploads you will have CSAM.
And the last aspect is just practicality. My github is a large part of my CV. I work on projects that I think are fun AND that I think will look good to people I am trying to convince to give me a job. Emulation is already a grey area (it isn't quite porn, but it can make you look like a liability to many companies). But if you have to link someone to a complete no name site because you are trying to avoid legal action? You aren't getting hired.
You can have an offline gitlab/forgejo and a public github. I do most of my work against a local gitlab, and mirror up to github for anything that needs to be shared.
I have a couple of projects mirrored down to my gitlab as a backup, and they are not online, so can't realistically be DCMAd.
I mean, you can just as easily just keep a project cloned if the purpose is an offline copy.
That doesn't change all the liability problems with running a public repo as well as why most coders aren't interested in a fly by night one that is designed to escape legal consequences.