DMCA Notices Took Down 31,151 GitHub Projects Last Year

GitHub's latest transparency report reveals that the company received 2,000 valid DMCA takedown notices last year, resulting in the removal of over 31,151 projects. Targeted repositories included copied code, but also pirate apps, IPTV playlists, and many Nintendo Switch emulators. Circumvention takedowns increased slightly, but GitHub notes that these continue to be heavily scrutinized.

github logo darkGitHub, home to hundreds of millions of code repositories, takes pride in being the largest and most advanced development platform in the world.

Like other platforms that host user-generated content, this massive code library occasionally runs into copyright infringement issues.

Pirate Troubles

One of the ‘pirate’ issues GitHub faces is a constant stream of scammy pirate advertisements posted to the site. These ads typically promise free access to the latest movies but, in reality, lure users into handing over credit card details or other personal information.

github scam
GitHub typically catches this type of spam before rightsholders notice, as no DMCA notice has yet mentioned them. Instead, rightsholders are more focused on developers whose projects are flagged for copied code or identified as pirate tools.

A few high-profile takedowns have grabbed headlines over the years, including the RIAA’s takedown of YouTube-DL, which was later reversed.

Other rightsholders were more successful, with GitHub removing a variety of piracy apps last year. Nintendo wass particularly active, wiping hundreds of repositories and forks, including the Rhythm Heaven remix tool, and Switch emulators including Suyu, Nuzu, Uzuy, Torzu, and Sudachi.

Also notable is the removal of several IPTV playlists by numerous rightsholders, as well as the removal of dedicated IPTV streaming apps such as VancedFlix, PikaShow, Castle and FlixFox.

31,151 Removed Repos

This week, GitHub updated its transparency report with the latest data, revealing the total number of notices received and projects affected. The report shows that the platform processed more than 2,000 takedown notices in 2024, which affected 31,151 repositories.

Of all notices received, just 41 were contested or retracted, and a total of 103 repositories remained online as a result.

The number of processed takedowns and retractions was similar to the previous year. There was a significant increase in the number of repositories removed, but that can likely be attributed to a handful of complaints against projects with many forks.

github dmca
GitHub says that it will continue to take a developer-first approach to content moderation, minimizing the disruption of software projects while protecting developer privacy. These transparency reports and the publicly posted takedown notices are a means to that end.

Circumvention Claims

In addition to all DMCA takedown notices, GitHub specifically breaks down notices containing circumvention claims. These continued to rise, with 465 requests last year.

circumvention
Processing circumvention notices is quite costly for the company as all requests are heavily scrutinized by in-house experts. This was in part triggered by the youtube-dl takedown saga, after which GitHub launched a million-dollar Developer Defense Fund for affected users.

When a circumvention complaint moves forward, GitHub always reaches out to developers before taking any action. This allows developers to address any issues, without taking their entire project offline.

“Where our experts determine that a claim is complete, legal, and technically legitimate, we will contact the repository owner and give them a chance to respond to the claim or make changes to the repo to avoid a takedown,” the company writes in its takedown policy.

All in all, it’s good to see that GitHub remains committed to takedown transparency, and we will keep monitoring these and other trends going forward.