CSDN Mass-Scrapes GitHub Projects onto GitCode
How it started
CSDN’s GitCode recently drew widespread anger and protest from developers over an extremely unethical practice. Without notifying developers or asking their consent, CSDN quietly moved a large number of open source projects from GitHub onto its own GitCode platform, and created developer profile pages for the developers of those projects. This behavior not only infringed on developers’ intellectual property and the fruits of their labor, it also thoroughly enraged the open source community.
The copying
I had assumed there were plenty of “porter” users on CSDN’s platform, but I never expected that CSDN itself was the real “king of all porters”! Not only do they crudely copy projects over from GitHub, they also replace the GitHub links in project READMEs with GitCode links.
Even more astonishing, among the copied projects were proxy tools such as v**ay, along with some projects of a sensitive nature. Although this inappropriate content has now been deleted (404), that does not stop users from cloning these projects with gitclone, which is truly hard to know whether to laugh or cry about.
There was also a rather funny part: because sensitive content was copied without any review, they briefly turned their own site into a 404.
The platform not only copied open source projects from GitHub without permission, it also created profile pages for developers, and the problem is that those pages do not belong to the real developers. Doesn’t that count as impersonation? This kind of impersonation seriously infringes on developers’ rights.
Latest developments
At present, quite a few people have noticed that their projects were copied without their knowledge, and a large number of developers have flocked to GitCode’s official community demanding that the platform delete their projects entirely.
However, because most developers have never registered on GitCode, they have no way at all to stop the copying. That is, the developers of the copied projects have no control over them either, even though the projects still carry their names.
Aftermath and likely direction
GitCode is a code hosting platform developed by CSDN. To gain search engine traffic quickly, CSDN used its usual approach: directly copying large amounts of content to fill the platform. Next, they will most likely pollute search engines through SEO farms to gain even more traffic. This kind of operation is not only deeply disrespectful to developers, it also seriously pollutes the entire internet environment.
Final thoughts
GitCode has been around for quite a while and never caused any trouble during that time. Recently, someone inside GitCode apparently got water on the brain and decided to copy GitHub repositories to enrich their own platform’s content.
This behavior, which ignores developers’ rights and maliciously copies projects, will certainly draw strong condemnation from the developer community; developers’ work deserves respect, and the good atmosphere of the open source community should be maintained. Developers should also stand together to resist this unethical behavior and protect their own legitimate rights.
Finally, I will join CaelLab in resisting it, and I hope everyone can take part as well and keep the internet’s open source environment healthy!!
References for this article: CSDN Mass-Scrapes GitHub Projects onto GitCode, Fabricating Developer Profiles and Sparking Public Outrage
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