China is attempting to mirror the entire GitHub over to their own servers, users report

0x815@feddit.org to Technology@lemmy.world – 839 points – Still (@still@infosec.exchange)
infosec.exchange

GitCode, a git-hosting website operated Chongqing Open-Source Co-Creation Technology Co Ltd and with technical support from CSDN and Huawei Cloud.

It is being reported that many users' repository are being cloned and re-hosted on GitCode without explicit authorization.

There is also a thread on Ycombinator (archived link)

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I personally don't care if someone "steals" my code (Here's my profile if you want to do so: https://github.com/ZILtoid1991 ), however it can mean some mixture of two things:

  1. China is getting ready for war, which will mean the US will try its best to block technology, including open source projects.
  2. China is planning to block GitHub due to it being able to host information the Chinese government might not like.

Of course it could mean totally unrelated stuff too (e.g. just your typical anti-China and/or anti-communist paranoia sells political points).

US will try its best to block technology, including open source projects.

You can't block open source projects from anyone. That's the entire point of open source. For a license to be considered open-source, it must not have any limitations as to who can use it.

You can't block open source projects from anyone.

I think they were referring to blocking GitHub from public access. In the event of a world war I could easily see Microsoft obeying the order to shut down GitHub.