Anthropic’s attempt to use DMCA takedowns to remove leaked Claude Code source code from GitHub mistakenly targeted thousands of legitimate forks of its official repository.
The initial takedown notice requested removal of a repository posted by user nirholas and 96 direct forks. However, GitHub extended the action to approximately 8,100 repositories, many of which contained no leaked material.
The broader removal impacted developers who had forked Anthropic’s official public codebase, used for submitting bug reports and improvements. Developers took to social media to voice frustration over the sweeping deletions.
By Wednesday, Anthropic corrected course, asking GitHub to reinstate repositories not explicitly listed in its original notice. Company executives acknowledged the error was due to a miscommunication.
Despite the correction, the incident highlights challenges in controlling code distribution once it has been publicly leaked.