Posts by
Head of Developer Policy
GitHub’s Developer Defense Fund will enable independent legal support from the Stanford Juelsgaard Clinic to review and handle appropriate DMCA cases for developers on GitHub and across the software ecosystem.
Yesterday’s Supreme Court decision in Google v. Oracle reaffirms that developers’ ability to port their code and skills between platforms is a significant interest to be protected. The headline is that Google’s use of Oracle’s Java API was “fair use,” but the Court’s recognition of the importance of developer interests in copyright law is a […]
This article originally appeared in The New Stack, and is republished here with permission. Digital sovereignty has become a rallying cry across the globe. In 2021, open innovation will, counterintuitively, provide the answer. Politicians and citizens alike want to ensure that the products, services, and data generated in the digital economy respect the sovereignty of […]
GitHub is committed to shaping public policies that support developers around the globe. Last year, we advised policymakers, supported legal action, and spoke directly to developers on policy in jurisdictions around the world. As part of our commitment to developers, we’d like to share some highlights of what GitHub Policy did for you in 2020. […]
Today, GitHub joined an amicus brief in NSO v. WhatsApp, opposing the expansion of foreign sovereign immunity to private cyber-surveillance companies that act on behalf of foreign governments. GitHub joined alongside Cisco, Google, LinkedIn, Microsoft, VMware, and the Internet Association against immunity for private sector offensive actors (PSOAs). Law and policy shape the software ecosystem. […]
GitHub is on a mission to accelerate human progress through developer collaboration. We do that by empowering our own employees to use their creativity to learn, play, and build great things. We believe that employers should encourage this creativity by providing certainty to employees about what they own and what they do not when they […]
Closing that priority issue you’re working on can wait—put down your keyboard and vote! Millions of you already have, and your vote in national and local elections may just impact your work as developers. Government policies influence what software is built, how it’s used, and who gets to build it in the first place. Remember, […]
November 3 is election day in the U.S. Early voting is available in most states. If you haven’t yet, make a plan to vote. If you’re an employer in the U.S., make sure employees have time to vote. Can developers contribute to better elections through open source? Yes, though it’s a challenging, complex space, with […]
This article originally appeared in TechCrunch, and is republished here with permission. The Supreme Court heard arguments October 7 in Google v. Oracle. This case raises a fundamental question for software developers and the open source community: whether copyright may prevent developers from using software’s functional interfaces – known as APIs – to advance innovation […]
Register, vote, and volunteer to make an impact during the U.S. 2020 elections.
Last week, GitHub joined over 500 organizations signing a letter to the U.S. Congress seeking continued support for the Open Technology Fund (OTF) and its mission of funding open source tools for internet freedom. OTF has demonstrated the power of investing in open source for public good. Taking relatively modest government grants, OTF has seeded […]
Find out why GitHub is joining the GPL Cooperation Commitment, and how effective regulation can help protect open source.
Congress has about 30 legislative days left to reverse an FCC order repealing net neutrality, while many U.S. states move to protect net neutrality
The tech industry and internet users collectively made a ruckus, but the U.S. Federal Communications Commission (FCC) still voted to repeal net neutrality regulations. The FCC published its order in the Federal Register on February 22. That means the U.S. Congress now has 60 legislative days to reverse the FCC’s order, starting in the Senate. […]
Nearly three years ago GitHub joined millions of people and hundreds of companies to support the open internet. In 2015 the United States Federal Communications Commission (FCC) passed net neutrality rules under which broadband providers may not block access to legal content, applications, services, or non-harmful devices; impair or degrade lawful internet traffic on basis […]
At GitHub, we recognize that running a great business over the long term requires a measure of “work/life balance” – and that includes recognizing that developers and other knowledge workers have creative lives outside of work. Whether that free time creativity involves contributing to open source projects, art, or activism, we want to encourage our […]