Codeberg: ToU extension to prohibit LLM-extrusions
codeberg.org
codeberg.org
(This specific change wouldn't affect me, since all the code I published was written without AI)
In terms of the risk of data loss -notwithstanding that having any codehost as your sole storage location without backups seems unwise for anything you value - Codeberg's approach to handling ToS violations has to date been extremely personal & not overly automated, so it's reasonably safe to assume artifacts won't be deleted without appropriate notice.
For self hosting, you're either large enough for people to go where you are regardless of the system, or you're effectively giving up the changes of having a community.
When someone tells you "We cannot afford to support you anymore", do you also reply "Well, I'll take this burden to someone else who will be grateful to eat some cost in supporting me"?
(2h ago, 89 points, 145 comments)
I don't really see the appeal besides free hosting + some storage.
People should either self-host a gitea/forgejo/gogs server for like 3$ a month on hetzner or just use gitea.com.
If you want to share your repos, just use sharemygit.com and spread the repo on coding forums. Personally I find this a much better stimulant for a community, then just having free-flowing code spread around like dust under a bed.
+ you actually dont need to be the victim of the whims of some ideological git-server provider. Ahem github (master->main), codeberg (no private repos are allowed), gitlab (you have to pay) etc. etc.
Private repositories are only allowed for things required for FLOSS projects, like storing secrets, team-internal discussions or hiding projects from the public until they're ready for usage and/or contribution. They are also allowed for really small & personal stuff like your journal, config files, ideas or notes, but explicitly not as a personal cloud or media storage.
This is reasonable: Codeberg is specifically set up to be a code host for open-source projects, not for closed-source commercial code.
It's insane to love Codeberg. Codeberg serves no purpose at all. Besides the free stuff ofc.
Not true. Codeberg is first of all a downstream fork [0] of Forgejo, making adaptations for high-scale use. And it offers additional services that Forgejo does not offer. Then it has a full-blown non-profit organization around it that enables community participation. It is the presidium of the community members that decided on the new ToU.
Forgejo is a hard fork of Gitea with a GPLv3 license, instead of MIT. Codeberg used to be based on Gitea, but it no longer does for many years now.
That makes the remaining human-only communities even more valuable.
It's on their Terms of Use. If you violate it, they will delete your account.
- artists,
- creators,
- translators,
- writers,
- climateThe reality is that even tools produced by concentrated capital and mass appropriation can also increase the productive capacity of a small free-software project whose code remains available under copyleft. They're not "infected" and contagious. They're tools.
They can deskill and dispossess workers; they can extend what a particular worker is able to make. Which tendency dominates, under what conditions, and to whose benefit are material questions.
"AI bad" is not an answer to them, any more than tech-bro "innovation good" is.
Close, but not quite. They are political questions. And crucially, political questions to which we already know the answer in the current sociopolitical environment: it displaces workers, because the balance of power is very heavily tilted towards the wealthy.
This is precisely why people oppose AI.
Saying one "opposes AI" itself is already broad stroke categorical thinking. Starting from purported essences rather than on the ground situations.
It's just moralistic thinking that hides details and accomplishes nothing. And pointless. Mechanization happens whether you like it or not. It's not mechanization or the machine one should be purposefully organizing against. It's the way it's used. Or you'll just lose.
I personally can't think of a better use of an AI "agentic tool" than to write copyleft free software. I'll rightfully "steal" back what they unethically stole, thank you very much.
"You touched the tool and are therefore contaminated and all you touched is contaminated" is what I see in the threads, and it's not just wrong it's tactically stupid.
If so, it seems kind of short sighted. Within a very short period of time all code will be AI code. What then?
And as the models improve, along with better code will come better bug fixing etc etc. So the quality of AI code will absolutely surpass that of human code. What then?
Will the repositories demand proof of programming ability? Why, when AI will be handling everything anyway. It would be rather like driving schools mandating that all drivers can strip an engine before they're allowed to drive? Very odd.
So I can see why e.g. a German institution would choose act more conservatively than one from countries with a background in common law.
If they change their opinions in the future, they can reevaluate their stance and update their terms.
I love using LLMs for coding, but I think it's absolutely fine if people make different decisions. In fact, I think trying to maintain code repositories that are free of LLM-generated code is extremely valuable.
It took decades of manufacturers ramping up reliability to the point that driving schools didn't teach you how to change spark plugs, oil swaps and how to change a tire on the road side. I did my license around 2010 in Germany and changing a tire plus how to check for oil and coolant levels was part of the curriculum.
And similarly, AI has to go through that "ripening" as well before it can be trusted. At the moment, there is no solution even found on how to prevent hallucinations or in-band signalling attacks, much less actually validated at scale.
This is unfounded speculation, presented as inevitable fact.
I agree, skills atrophy is a real thing!
(It's a joke, relax... :-))
Some may have concerns about energy use. But that's not Codeberg's problem.
> Within a very short period of time all code will be AI code.
No it won't. But you outed yourself as a botlicker. So, off you go to somewhere that welcomes botlickers, then.
That is toxic AF, you know that?
I really wish HN had a block function.
It's not misinformation, just read their own page:
If you use more than 100 MB of private storage for the use cases mentioned earlier, please send us a request and we can evaluate it.
If you do not contribute to any free/libre software project at all, Codeberg is unfortunately not the right place for you. However, check out the alternatives, we're sure you'll find a cozy place for your work.
The size limit is........a size limit, something every host should have; there's one for public codeberg repos too.
And while there are restrictions on what private repos are allowed, there are also restrictions on what public repos are allowed too, and it's extremely clear that neither requirement is equivalent to "they don't allow [public / private] repos".
My reading of that section is that, besides the size limit, the rules on private repos are, to an extent, less strict than of public repos; anyone who falls under your second quoted sentence couldn't have any public repos either, by the nature of public repos needing to be FOSS.
Anyway, originally I didn't quite agree with fs111 on straight up calling your post misinformation, but I guess it is indeed your intent to completely ignore facts and just say random garbage.
Then all digital systems will be compromised and our civilization will collapse. Without internet and computers, we would all be living happy farmer lives.
Well, we are heading for 2º C global warming by 2040, possibly by 2030. And the IPCC and others already pointed out that 2º means the end of civilisation.
So, it's coming anyway... but it's the nature of human fsck-ups that they come in clusters. That's why someone coined the term "clusterfsck".
So, we have multiple human fsckups coming along all together in the mid-2020s, just as we did in the mid-1930s.
Sketchy off the cuff chronology:
* Cheap COTS x86 hardware gets good enough to run free OSes from academia (good)
* Virtualisation forcibly brought to x86 in defiance of Popek and Goldberg (good)
* Broadband everywhere (good)
Result:
* Mainstream acceptance of FOSS (good)
Result:
* Cheap mass cloud computing (bad)
Side-effect: financial crisis -- the dot-com crash
Time passes. International travel gets cheaper. Internet facilitates global trade, globalisation, and awareness of inequalities. Only now you can afford to get there.
Some recovery, new internet startups.
Result:
* Free mass pesudonymous social media (bad)
Result:
* Weak poor post-communist régimes spread disinformation online in bulk
* Cryptocurrencies: imaginary internet money that destroys the climate, facilitates crime, destabilises financial systems
Result:
* International agreements weakened (NATO, EU, global finance, etc.)
* Another financial crisis
Same time:
* Really large scale cloud computing
* Cheaper travel facilitates a pandemic
* More money for internet and cloud companies
Result
* LLMs -- mechanically-recovered text extruders
* More, better disinformation; further geopolitical instability
Next:
* Mass scale climate collapse renders large countries and continents uninhabitable
* Kills cheap hi-tech factories
* Collapse of bot-slop poisoned tech industry
Result:
War.
Then you'll use one of the many, many providers who will host your code. Why is it so important to you that this specific provider has to host vibe-coded stuff when you can host it anywhere else? Is "rest of the world" not a big enough place for you?