Media scraper gallery-dl is moving to Codeberg after receiving a DMCA notice

What happened

It has been reported that mikf, the maintainer of gallery-dl, received an email alleging a Fakku™ DMCA notice that labelled the project “CIRCUMVENTION: Command-line tool enabling automated mass downloading from hentai piracy infrastructure.” The notice — reportedly covering gallery-dl and 28 other repositories — demanded removal of “offending” files by rewriting the repository history with git-filter-repo within a week. The maintainer said they’re reluctant to rewrite history and would “honestly rather switch to a different platform” than make major changes.

Reactions and options

Comments on the project’s GitHub discussion range from profanity-laced outrage to coldly pragmatic legal reading. Some contributors argue Fakku’s secondary‑liability claim is weak; others note that DMCA procedure only requires a good‑faith belief, not a sound legal analysis, so even sloppy takedown notices can force platforms to act. Suggested paths: fully comply (set a precedent), remove just the named extractors, file a counter‑notice (legal risk), or migrate to a different host such as Codeberg — the option the maintainer is reportedly leaning toward.

Why it matters

This isn’t just a dispute over one downloader. It’s part of a bigger conversation about content moderation, platform risk, and how open‑source projects cope when legal threats hit code rather than prose. Where do maintainers move when the hosting service becomes a legal pinch point? For gallery-dl’s users and many other tool authors, the answer may increasingly be smaller federated or self‑hosted services — and a reminder that the “open” in open source can be fragile when copyright notices arrive. Watch this space: the next week could decide whether the repo gets edited, challenged, or simply packed up and moved elsewhere.

Sources: github.com/mikf, Hacker News