From: Robert Klemme <shortcutter@...>
Date: 2009-08-22T02:45:09+09:00
Subject: Re: Github and _why

On 21.08.2009 19:05, Tony Arcieri wrote:
> On Fri, Aug 21, 2009 at 10:38 AM, John W Higgins <wishdev@gmail.com> wrote:
> 
>> Github nor anyone else has no business whatsoever touching one single byte
>> of data that _why deleted from his account. This would be an absolutely
>> ridiculous precedent to set and in complete violation of their privacy
>> policy which clearly says Github has no rights to any data stored on their
>> servers.
> 
> Do concepts like open source and distributed source control escape you?  It
> may be that _why has moved on, but his source code will live on without him.

That's not the point.  John's point is - and I fully subscribe to it - 
that convenience arguments are not allowed to break contracts: /if/ the 
terms of operation of github (that everybody subscribes to) prohibit 
access to account data after it has been willfully deleted by the 
account owner then nobody must try to recover them only to prevent the 
inconvenience that the community needs to resort to forks or other 
copies of the material.

If people fight for their freedom of information and mistrust Google for 
actually or allegedly abusing user data then it is a bad idea to call 
for violation of rules if it serves their convenience.

It seems indeed that github's terms prevent access after account deletion:

Cancellation and Termination

    1. You are solely responsible for properly canceling your account. 
An email or phone request to cancel your account is not considered 
cancellation. You can cancel your account at any time by clicking on the 
Account link in the global navigation bar at the top of the screen. The 
Account screen provides a simple no questions asked cancellation link.

    2. All of your Content will be immediately deleted from the Service 
upon cancellation. This information can not be recovered once your 
account is cancelled.

http://github.com/site/terms

Data Storage

Logical Awesome uses third party vendors and hosting partners to provide 
the necessary hardware, software, networking, storage, and related 
technology required to run GitHub. Although Logical Awesome owns the 
code, databases, and all rights to the GitHub application, you retain 
all rights to your data.

http://github.com/site/privacy

Kind regards

	robert

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