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Comment by Sunspark | Hacker News Reader

For awhile now I have not wanted to use GitHub because of this tool. Why should anyone write code for Microsoft for free when Microsoft charges for software?

Perhaps options like GitLab and others should be considered instead.

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I like Copilot and use it, so I'll be glad to continue using it and it can use my code to help train it. It's a fair exchange in my view.

That's cool for you. For the rest of us, however, it would be terribly simple for Github to provide a profile/account setting that allows people to opt out -- perhaps on a per-repo level as well as per-account. Yet they don't. I wonder why not.

Until someone forks/mirrors your project on GitHub

I've certainly been enjoying Codeberg for my personal development.

> Why should anyone write code for Microsoft for free when Microsoft charges for software

Do you feel the same way about contribute to the Linux kernel that is used by commercial software companies?

If you don’t want people to use your code, consider making your repos private.

What if you want people to use your code, but not for proprietary software?

Impossible. As soon as you show it to anyone there is a chance they will use something they learned in their proprietary software, likely unknowingly.

And if that happens, I have the right to sue.

GPL?

There are thousands of open source libraries used legally in thousands of commercial products, so I'm not sure I understand your point.

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