GitHub: Accounts that re-upload deleted content may be banned

GitHub warns users that it will block accounts if they distribute material previously taken offline by DMCA requests. While the company doesn’t specifically refer to it, it probably does after the controversy surrounding youtube-dl.

GitHub has updated the Readme from the DMCA repo. In that repo, GitHub puts any content removal requests it receives under the Digital Millenium Copyright Act. The Readme.md has now been updated to specifically indicate that GitHub is taking action against accounts that post such content. “Reposting the exact same content that was previously part of a takedown is a violation of GitHub’s terms and conditions,” the company writes. In that case, the content will be removed, and it is possible that accounts are completely banned from the platform.

The company does not specifically mention YouTube-DL, but the new rules are most likely a direct result of that case. Last month, GitHub took the repositories of the popular YouTube downloader youtube-dl offline. GitHub was previously requested to do so for alleged copyright infringement. Users of the platform were angry and started uploading cloned repos en masse to GitHub.