224 lines
12 KiB
HTML
224 lines
12 KiB
HTML
{% extends "base_compliance.html" %}
|
|
{% block subtitle %}Give Up GitHub - {% endblock %}
|
|
{% block submenuselection %}GiveUpGitHub{% endblock %}
|
|
{% block content %}
|
|
|
|
<h1>Give Up GitHub!</h1>
|
|
|
|
<p>On Wednesday 29 June 2022, we <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/jun/30/give-up-github-launch/">began
|
|
calling on all FOSS developers</a> to <strong>give up on
|
|
GitHub</strong>. </p>
|
|
|
|
<div class="picture-small right">
|
|
<img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/GiveUpGitHub.svg" alt="A parody of the GitHub logo, walling off user rights and demanding payment"/>
|
|
</div>
|
|
<p>We realize this is not an easy task; GitHub is ubiquitous. Through their
|
|
effective marketing, GitHub has convinced Free and Open Source Software
|
|
(FOSS) developers that GitHub is the best (and even the only) place for FOSS
|
|
development. However, as a proprietary, trade-secret tool, GitHub itself is
|
|
the very opposite of FOSS. By contrast, Git was
|
|
designed <a href="http://www.h-online.com/open/features/The-saga-of-Git-Lightning-does-strike-twice-1051559.html">specifically
|
|
to replace a proprietary tool (BitKeeper)</a>, and to make FOSS development
|
|
distributed — using FOSS tools and without a centralized site. GitHub
|
|
has warped Git — creating add-on features that turn a distributed,
|
|
egalitarian, and FOSS system into a centralized, proprietary site. And, all
|
|
those add-on features are controlled by a single, for-profit company. By
|
|
staying on GitHub, established FOSS communities bring newcomers to this
|
|
proprietary platform — expanding GitHub's reach. and limiting the
|
|
imaginations of the next generation of FOSS developers.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>We know that many rely on GitHub every day. Giving up a ubiquitous,
|
|
gratis service that has useful (albeit proprietary) features is perennially
|
|
difficult. For software developers, giving up GitHub will be even harder
|
|
than giving up Facebook! We don't blame anyone who struggles, but hope you
|
|
will read the reasons and methods below to give up GitHub and join us in
|
|
seeking better alternatives! Also, please check back to this page regularly,
|
|
as we'll continue to update it throughout 2022 and beyond!</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Why Give Up GitHub?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>There are so many reasons to give up on GitHub, but we list here a few of
|
|
the most important ones:
|
|
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><p><a href="https://github.com/features/copilot" rel="nofollow">Copilot
|
|
is a for-profit product</a> — developed and marketed by Microsoft
|
|
and their GitHub subsidiary — that uses Artificial Intelligence (AI)
|
|
techniques to automatically generate code interactively for developers.
|
|
The AI model was trained
|
|
(<a href="https://github.blog/2021-06-30-github-copilot-research-recitation/"
|
|
rel="nofollow">according to GitHub's own statements</a>) exclusively with
|
|
projects that were hosted on GitHub, including many licensed
|
|
under <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/copyleft-compliance/glossary.html#copyleft">copyleft</a>
|
|
licenses. Most of those projects are not in the “public
|
|
domain”, they are licensed
|
|
under <a href="https://opensource.org/licenses"><acronym title="Free and
|
|
Open Source Software">FOSS</acronym> licenses</a>. These licenses
|
|
have <em>requirements</em> including proper author attribution and, in
|
|
the case of <a href="https://copyleft.org/"><em>copyleft</em>
|
|
licenses</a>, they sometimes require that works based on and/or that
|
|
incorporate the software be licensed under the same copyleft license as
|
|
the prior work. Microsoft and GitHub have been ignoring these license
|
|
requirements for more than a year. Their only defense of these
|
|
actions <a href="https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1409914420579344385">was
|
|
a tweet by their former CEO</a>, in which he falsely claims that
|
|
unsettled law on this topic is actually settled. In addition to the legal
|
|
issues,
|
|
the <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/blog/2022/feb/03/github-copilot-copyleft-gpl/">ethical
|
|
implications of GitHub's choice to use copylefted code</a> in the service
|
|
of creating proprietary software are grave.</p> </li>
|
|
|
|
<li id="ICE-contract-details"><p>In 2020, the community discovered that
|
|
GitHub <a href="https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2020/01/ice-contract-github-sparks-developer-protests/604339/">has
|
|
a for-profit software services contract with the USA Immigration and Customs
|
|
Enforcement (ICE)</a>. Activists, including some GitHub employees, have been
|
|
calling on GitHub for two years to cancel that contract. GitHub's primary
|
|
reply has been that their parent company, Microsoft, has sold Microsoft Word
|
|
for years to ICE without any public complaints. They claim that this somehow
|
|
justifies <em>even more</em> business with an agency whose policies are
|
|
problematic. Regardless of your views on ICE and its behavior, GitHub's
|
|
ongoing <a href="https://www.latimes.com/business/technology/story/2020-06-12/github-ceo-black-lives-matter-employees-demand-end-ice-contract">dismissive and disingenuous</a> responses to the activists who raised this important issue show that GitHub puts its profits above concerns from the community.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>While GitHub pretends to be pro-FOSS
|
|
(like <a href="https://lwn.net/Articles/17822/">SourceForge before
|
|
them</a>), their entire hosting site is, itself, proprietary and/or
|
|
trade-secret software. We appreciate that GitHub allows some of its
|
|
employees to sometimes contribute FOSS to upstream projects, but our
|
|
community has been burned so many times before by companies that claim to
|
|
support FOSS, while actively convincing the community to rely on their
|
|
proprietary software. We won't let GitHub burn us in this same way!</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>GitHub differs from most of its peers in the FOSS project hosting
|
|
industry, as GitHub does not even offer any self-hosting FOSS option.
|
|
Their <em>entire</em> codebase is secret. For example, while we have our
|
|
complaints about GitLab's business model of parallel “Community”
|
|
and “Enterprise” editions, at least GitLab's Community Edition
|
|
provides basic functionality for self-hosting and is 100% FOSS. Meanwhile,
|
|
there are <em>non-profit</em> FOSS hosting sites such
|
|
as <a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a>, who develop their platform
|
|
publicly as FOSS.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>GitHub has long sought to discredit copyleft generally. Their various
|
|
CEOs have often spoken loudly and negatively about copyleft, including their
|
|
founder (and former CEO)
|
|
devoting <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-bAAlPXB2-c">his OSCON
|
|
keynote on attacking copyleft and the GPL</a>. This trickled down from the
|
|
top. We've personally observed various GitHub employees over the years
|
|
arguing in many venues to convince projects to avoid copyleft;
|
|
we've <a href="https://github.com/BenKallos/legislation/issues/2#issue-46911010">even
|
|
seen a GitHub employee do this in a GitHub bug ticket directly</a>.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>GitHub is wholly owned by Microsoft, a company whose executives have historically repeatedly attacked copyleft licensing.</p></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
|
|
<h2>How Do I Give Up GitHub?</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>The reason that it's difficult to leave GitHub is a side-effect of one of
|
|
the reasons to leave them: proprietary vendor lock-in. We are aware that
|
|
GitHub, as the “Facebook of software development”, has succeeded
|
|
in creating the most enticing walled garden ever made for FOSS developers.
|
|
Just like leaving Facebook is painful because you're unsure how you'll find
|
|
and talk with your friends and family otherwise — leaving GitHub is
|
|
difficult because it's how you find and collaborate with
|
|
co-developers. GitHub may even be how you find and showcase your work to
|
|
prospective employers. We also know that some Computer Science programs
|
|
even <em>require</em> students to use GitHub.</p>
|
|
|
|
<div class="picture-small left">
|
|
<img src="https://sfconservancy.org/img/GiveUpGitHub.svg" alt="A parody of the GitHub logo, walling off user rights and demanding payment"/>
|
|
</div>
|
|
|
|
<p>Accordingly, we call first on the most comfortably-situated developers
|
|
among you — leaders of key FOSS projects, hiring and engineering
|
|
managers, and developers who are secure in their employment — to take
|
|
the first step to reject GitHub's proprietary services. We recognize that
|
|
for new developers in the field, you'll receive pressure from potential
|
|
employers (even those that will otherwise employ you to develop FOSS) to
|
|
participate on GitHub. Collective action requires the privileged developers
|
|
among us to lead by example; that's why we're not merely asking you leave
|
|
GitHub, but we're spearheading an effort to help everyone give up GitHub over
|
|
the long term. You can help protect newcomers from the intrinsic power
|
|
imbalance created by GitHub by setting the agenda for your FOSS project and
|
|
hosting your project elsewhere.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>As such, we're speaking first to the hiring managers, community leaders,
|
|
and those in other positions of power that encourage the use of GitHub to new
|
|
contributors and existing communities. Once someone in power makes the choice
|
|
to host a project on GitHub, the individual contributors have little choice
|
|
but to use these proprietary and damaging products. If you are making
|
|
decisions or have political power within your community and/or employer, we
|
|
urge you to use your power to center community efforts through FOSS platforms
|
|
rather than GitHub. If you're an individual contributor who feels powerless
|
|
to leave GitHub, read our (growing) list of recommendations below on how to
|
|
take the first steps.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>Long term, we'll develop this stable URL (that can always be reached
|
|
by <a href="https://GiveUpGitHub.org">GiveUpGitHub.org</a>) to include links
|
|
to resources to help everyone — from the most privileged developer to
|
|
newcomers and members of underrepresented groups in FOSS — to give up
|
|
on GitHub. If you don't feel that you or your project can yet leave GitHub,
|
|
we ask that you raise awareness
|
|
by <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">adding
|
|
this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub with
|
|
your users. If you're ready to leave GitHub, you
|
|
can <a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/GiveUpGitHub-README.md">use this
|
|
README.md template</a> to replace your current one.</p>
|
|
|
|
<p>
|
|
<blockquote><p>千里之行始於足下<br/>The journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.</p></blockquote>
|
|
<div style="text-align: right"><p> — <cite>老子 (Lao Tsu) in Chapter 64
|
|
of 道德经 (Tao Te Ching)</cite>
|
|
</p></div>
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Resources to Give Up GitHub</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Here are some resources to help you quit GitHub. We'll be expanding this
|
|
list regularly as we find more resources. If you'd like to suggest a
|
|
resource not yet listed, you can discuss it on
|
|
the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">Give-Up-GitHub
|
|
mailing list</a>.</p>
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li>Alternative Hosting Services:
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><a href="https://codeberg.org">CodeBerg</a></li>
|
|
<li><a href="https://sourcehut.org/">SourceHut</a></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
<li>Self-Host (or join a group that self-hosts). A few options:
|
|
<ul><li><a href="https://gitea.io">Gitea</a></li>
|
|
<li> <a href="https://gitlab.com/rluna-gitlab/gitlab-ce">GitLab
|
|
Community Edition</a> (note, the GitLab Enterprise Edition, which is
|
|
provided to the public on gitlab.com, is (like GitHub) trade-secret,
|
|
proprietary, vendor-lock-in software)</li>
|
|
<li><a href="https://sr.ht/~sircmpwn/sourcehut/">SourceHut</a></li>
|
|
</ul></li>
|
|
(We'll be adding tutorials soon on how to self-host!)
|
|
</ul></p>
|
|
|
|
<h2>Ways To Help Even <em>Before</em> You Give Up GitHub</h2>
|
|
|
|
<p>Here are some ideas of how you can help raise the importance of this issue
|
|
even while you're still a GitHub user. (We'll publish longer tutorials in
|
|
future about these and other ways to help.)
|
|
<ul>
|
|
<li><p><a href="https://sfconservancy.org/docs/SupportGiveUpGitHub-README-snippet.md">Add
|
|
this section to your README.md</a> to share your concerns about GitHub
|
|
with your users.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>Respectfully and kindly ask, before you contribute to a project on
|
|
GitHub, if they could provide alternative means to contribute other than
|
|
using GitHub.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>Explain to your employer the dangers of relying on GitHub's proprietary
|
|
vendor lock-in products.</p></li>
|
|
|
|
<li><p>Join
|
|
the <a href="https://lists.sfconservancy.org/mailman/listinfo/give-up-github">give-up-github
|
|
mailing list</a> and start threads about your difficulties leaving GitHub.
|
|
This will help us explore solutions with you and add material to this
|
|
page.</p></li>
|
|
</ul>
|
|
</p>
|
|
|
|
|
|
{% endblock %}
|