Enlarge / Twitter headquarters in San Francisco on February 8, 2023.
Getty Images | Agency Anadolu
Twitter has received a subpoena requiring GitHub to provide identifying information about a user who posted portions of Twitter source code.
Twitter on Friday asked the US District Court for the Northern District of California to issue a subpoena to GitHub. A court clerk signed the subpoena yesterday.
GitHub user FreeSpeechEnthusiast posted Twitter source code in early January, shortly after Elon Musk bought Twitter and laid off thousands of workers. Twitter reportedly suspects the code leaker is one of its many former employees.
GitHub removed the code repository on Friday, shortly after Twitter filed a DMCA (Digital Millennium Copyright Act) notice. Twitter’s takedown notice also requested information to identify FreeSpeechEnthusiast, but GitHub did not immediately provide these details to Twitter.
GitHub has until April 3rd to provide details
With the subpoena now issued, GitHub has until April 3 to provide all identifying information, “including name(s), address(es), phone number(s), email address(es), social media profile details and IP address(es), for the user(s) associated with the FreeSpeechEnthusiast account. GitHub was also instructed to provide the same type of information about all “users who posted, uploaded, downloaded, or modified the data” in the code repository posted by FreeSpeechEnthusiast.
We’ve contacted GitHub and will update this article when we get a response. GitHub is owned by Microsoft.
The code appeared to have been on GitHub for months before Twitter executives became aware of the leak. A Sunday New York Times article quoted sources as saying Twitter executives are concerned “that the code contains security flaws that could allow hackers or other motivated parties to extract user data or shut down the site.” .
Getting summonses isn’t that difficult
It doesn’t seem too difficult to get a DMCA subpoena when it comes to someone who has posted directly infringing content. The DMCA text states that if a notice of infringement complies with the law and “the proposed subpoena is in proper form and the accompanying statement has been properly executed, the clerk must expeditiously issue and sign the proposed subpoena and return it to the requester.” for delivery to the service provider.”
GitHub could theoretically still challenge the subpoena requirements. “While DMCA subpoenas are intended to provide a legal fast track to uncovering the identity of an alleged infringer, platforms that receive a subpoena can challenge it in court, particularly if they believe it will interfere with the user’s freedom of expression,” a Bloomberg article notes.
Not every subpoena request related to copyright is a bull’s eye. We have previously written about film studios trying to force Reddit to identify users who have posted comments about piracy. In this case, the subpoena was signed by a studio attorney and not confirmed by the court. The film studios’ request was part of an attempt to prove that internet service provider RCN was neglecting privacy.
After the studios filed a motion to compel Reddit to respond to their subpoena, Reddit told the court that the motion should be denied, saying the studios “can use a myriad of ways to provide evidence about RCN’s policies on repeat infringers.” received that do not involve the exposure of anonymous online spokespeople. ” Reddit and the film studios then agreed to have the case heard by a magistrate.
In another case, Marvel this month asked the District Court for the Northern District of California to issue subpoenas to both Reddit and Google demanding the identities of people allegedly involved in the leak of dialogue from Ant-Man and the Wasp: Quantumania prior to release. The court approved Google’s subpoena and Reddit’s subpoena days after Marvel’s filing.