I am currently studying JAMStack. My plans are to implement it using the Gatsby/Github/Netlify/NetlifyCMS path. I will primarily use it to build websites for charities.
In researching this project, I came across some articles that implied that any website or content placed on GitHub is open-source. Supposedly, it can be copied and used by anyone. Is this true? Is there no copyright protection? This doesn’t seem logical as no business would use them without copyright protection. Thanks.
Without access to the articles you mention, I would hazard a guess that it is the source code for the site which they consider to be open-source, not the site content.
Open Source and License Free are not the same thing.
Github actively encourages the use of open source licensing for projects hosted in Github.
Private Repositories, by the name and nature of their existance, serve to limit the access to source code to those individuals authorized to it.
There’s always the consideration that Github (and by extension, Microsoft) would themselves have access to all code stored on Github. So it’s a concern.
That said, when it comes to websites, if you’re not using a server-side language, your code is… already ‘open source’ in that anyone can View Source on a webpage, regardless of whether its on Github or not. Copyright is a separate matter.
It depends whether you are paying GitHub. GitHub has a com TLD; it operates for profit. Companies can pay them and then the code is proprietary.
Until about half a year ago, free accounts had to be exposed to the public. We could not have private repositories for free. That changed, I think last January. We can now have private repositories in free accounts. With that explanation, I suggest reading the GitHub descriptions; I am sure it is clear enough. I could go and read it but I think it is as easy for you to do it as it is for me.
There is a difference between legal and technical. We all see on TV where an investigator hacks into a site that they are legally not authorized to do. Amazon (and Facebook and so on) personnel can listen to conversations in situations where they are not supposed to.
Thanks. I’m not particularly concerned about Github viewing my repo. With a free private repo, the millions of Github users won’t have access.
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