GitHub

On November 3, 2022 developer-attorney Matthew Butterick filed a proposed class action against GitHub, Microsoft and OpenAI alleging that GitHub Copilot reproduces verbatim or near-verbatim snippets of open-source code without preserving the original license, author attribution, or copyright notices required by permissive licenses such as MIT, Apache and GPL. The Northern District of California allowed two contract-related claims to proceed in 2024 while dismissing some DMCA claims. The case remains a flagship test of fair-use limits in code-trained generative AI.

On August 8, 2022 GitHub removed the Tornado Cash open-source repositories and suspended developer accounts including those of US person Roman Storm following the US Treasury OFAC's August 8, 2022 sanctioning of the protocol's smart contracts. EFF, Coin Center and free-speech advocates argued GitHub's takedown went beyond legal requirements - sanctions targeted the protocol addresses, not the code, and US precedent (Bernstein v. DOJ) treats source code as protected speech. GitHub reinstated some repositories in archive-only mode in September 2022 after sustained criticism.

In October 2019 more than 200 GitHub employees signed an open letter calling on the company to terminate its $200,000 contract with US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). At least five engineers publicly resigned in protest. CEO Nat Friedman defended the contract by saying GitHub products were 'general-purpose developer tools' and the company would not cancel the contract, while pledging $500,000 in donations to immigrant-rights organizations. The contract has been renewed each year since.

GitHub's Student Developer Pack and Global Campus programs provide students worldwide free access to GitHub Pro tier, Copilot and tens of partner developer tools (DigitalOcean credits, JetBrains IDEs, Namecheap domains, etc.) regardless of geography or institution wealth. As of 2024 the program had distributed estimated $300M+ in tooling value to more than 4 million students, including in countries where local payment access for developer subscriptions is difficult.