Re:New GitHub Terms of Service require removing many open-so...
by belorn on Sunday March 05, 2017 @05:32PM
(#13799224)
I agree that the wording is odd if as you say they intended it to only be "on github", through there is one problem. The rights granted by 2 can't be used in isolation from 1 and 3.
If you ran the program locally by accessing the content through the GitHub Service, without reproducing the content, 2 should grant you the right to use, display and perform the content. I don't see how you could do that using anything requiring a linker, but I can see how agpl javascript could be in danger if script tags on a website can be linked directly to a file on a github. In that way the content is "access through the GitHub Service", used locally by the browser, but depending on legal theory, not reproduced.
In the general case however it is hard to use, display or perform content for which someone can't access or copy.
If you ran the program locally by accessing the content through the GitHub Service, without reproducing the content, 2 should grant you the right to use, display and perform the content. I don't see how you could do that using anything requiring a linker, but I can see how agpl javascript could be in danger if script tags on a website can be linked directly to a file on a github. In that way the content is "access through the GitHub Service", used locally by the browser, but depending on legal theory, not reproduced.
In the general case however it is hard to use, display or perform content for which someone can't access or copy.