Is proprietary code legally safe on bitbucket or github?

github bitbucket
Adam Gent picture Adam Gent · Sep 21, 2010 · Viewed 31.6k times · Source

I know this slightly in the legal realm but its unclear who owns the code if you put proprietary code on github or bitbucket in a private repository.

From Bitbucket we have:

By submitting public (non-private) Content to Avantlumiere for inclusion on your Website, you grant Avantlumiere a world-wide, royalty-free, and non-exclusive license to reproduce, modify, adapt and publish the Content solely for the purpose of displaying and promoting your account or repository. If a repository is marked as private, these terms do not apply.

The question of course is what terms do apply to private accounts.

In theory the code should be safe if a license header with copyright information is on every file... right?

I am not asking for legal advice and will not hold any one responsible.

Answer

mipadi picture mipadi · Sep 21, 2010

From GitHub:

We claim no intellectual property rights over the material you provide to the Service. Your profile and materials uploaded remain yours. However, by setting your pages to be viewed publicly, you agree to allow others to view your Content. By setting your repositories to be viewed publicly, you agree to allow others to view and fork your repositories.

As noted in the BitBucket TOS you linked, BitBucket's parent company similarly has no claims to code that you upload into private repos.

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