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I can also write on my own web site that my email address is linus@linuxfoundation.org. But I can't send or receive messages from it, so how exactly would I be claiming it?

Does GitHub allow you to impersonate Linus via email? No, it does not.

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I think you're fixated on the inverse of what this is. Imagine it's a true commit by Linus identified by his email address. This issue is when someone creates a GitHub profile with Linus' email address and by doing so, causes the GitHub UI to ascribe authorship of that commit to your user profile via your GitHub username and a link to your profile.

Also there's no need to imagine because that's what this is. A real commit with a correct email showing the wrong user.

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