Moving away from github
Everyone was outraged by the take down of youtube-dl from github including, supposedly, the current owner of github, microsoft. It's funny because microsoft is also a member of the RIAA, the same organization that shut down the project.
My response, like many others was to scramble to find the latest repo and start keeping track where the developers move next because youtube-dl is useful both for it's utility and also as a model for learning how to structure projects of that type.
A few days ago I saw a post indicating a new release of mitmproxy (also hosted on github) and realized every project hosted on that site was threatened.
That got me thinking about other projects hosted on github of critical utility but whose existence frustrates assholes in power.
- libtorrent
- bitcoin
- sabnzb
- openssh
- openvpn
- gnuradio
- wireshark
- wine
- dolphin and every other game emulator ever
Open source and git makes censorship difficult but without a vibrant and secure darkweb, it's easy to make things disappear. Just ask all the nintendo fans who had their projects shut down after years of development.
Update 20201116
As of today youtube-dl has moved back to github.. They changed their tests to avoid explicitly mentioning RIAA owned music but the tests still remain in the git history.
This is just depressing. My first though was this suggests youtube-dl guys feel they have no other option for hosting - because why else would you return to a hosting service after they had shown you who they are? But after some consideration I realize they're probably more protected from the shitty laws than if they hosted it themselves.
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