When you make a repository public on Hugging Face, every other user on the platform automatically gets a permanent, irrevocable right to use, copy, share, and build on your content — and you cannot take that permission back.
Any model weights, datasets, or code published to a public Hugging Face repository are permanently licensed to all users worldwide with no ability to revoke — making accidental public disclosure of proprietary or sensitive content irreversible.
Cross-platform context
See how other platforms handle Irrevocable Public Repository License and similar clauses.
Compare across platforms →This means that once you publish a model, dataset, or any other content publicly, you permanently lose the ability to prevent others from using or remixing it, even if you later delete or privatize the repository.
(1) REGULATORY FRAMEWORK: This provision implicates 17 U.S.C. §106 (U.S. Copyright Act) — the license granted is a copyright sublicense extending to all platform users, and its perpetual irrevocable nature means the original author cannot exercise their §106(3) distribution right to restrict further use once public. Under EU law, this intersects with the EU Copyright Directive (2019/790) and may conflict with moral rights frameworks in EU member states that cannot be contractually waived. The FTC (15 U.S.C. §45) could scrutinize whether users are adequately informed of this irrevocability at the point of publication. (2)
Compliance intelligence locked
Regulatory citations, enforcement risk, and due diligence action items.
Watcher: regulatory citations. Professional: full compliance memo.