Are there alternatives outside the reach of the US?
Probably https://codeberg.org/ since it's hosted in the EU. https://sr.ht/ might work due to its small size but it hosted in the US AFAIK.
I'd not heard of those -- thanks!
Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
101–110 of 353 posts
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#102People should resist the temptation to defend this. 1. Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Note that the vast majority of websites do not do this. Even big ones, such as Gmail, do not do this. 2. It does not speak well of the United States justice system if someone could be prosecuted for failure to block Iranian IPs. If this were required, the law should be clear. Other…
I don’t quite understand your summary. You say “GitLab should grow a pair”, but also that any infrastructure using Google Cloud will block Iranian IPs, so many companies will end up unusable from Iranian IPs regardless of their own opinions?
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#103Quick note that anyone using a US based cloud provider will likely be blocking all sanctioned countries. It’s not configurable at all. It was a sticking point for us when deploying the sequel to a game I was working on. Ultimately we determined that the benefits of using the provider outweighed the benefit to users since we weren’t shipping the game there officially anyway. (With one notable exception) It still leave…
You might want to delete the "and the citizenry did nothing wrong" ending to your otherwise reasonable post. I don't think you meant it the way it sounds.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#104Earlier quoted context omitted.
I mean, taking steps to deter a country from annexing or triggering a war makes sense. But the sanctions against Iran are mainly based on old grudges. Pretty much nobody even knows why they exist beyond “they’re bad.”
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nuclear_program_of_Iran
>On 1 May 2018 the IAEA reiterated its 2015 report, saying it had found no credible evidence of nuclear weapons activity in Iran after 2009
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#105Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sadly to the point. I feel for Iranians in Iran (I know many, whether they call themselves Persians or Iranians as expats is their choice and I respect that). Having had the opportunity to meet the former in their homeland so so long ago, many Americans do not understand how grueling the sanctions regime system is for average Iranian citizens in their everyday; this is sadly a minor example as I saw based experiences…
What non-violent (yes, there is violence inherent in sanctions, but it is a rather different scale than war) alternative would you suggest for punishing a foreign country? EDIT: I see this question has been asked in other threads, but not answered. Whether Iran should be punished is a separate question (one on which I am personally too ignorant to hold an opinion about) from how should one country punish another.
Well in the case of authoritarian regimes, I would imagine trying to pump more information from the free world into it would be a more effective "punishment" that restricting information. In practice though that's hard. Most authoritarian regimes have state censors/firewalls to filter only information that is advantageous for the state.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#106TL, DR; is the Nth time I read the same story, someone losing access to something they think they owned.
I don't want to sound too heinous or else ..but please don't be so naive to trust github, operated by microsoft,an usa company, with your life work. You own what you can defend. Your github account is not yours. Sober up. Using any service inside USA is a priviledge not a right.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#107Gitlab blocked Iran's Access* This happened because of US sanctions[0]. [0] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/code-of-condu...
I’m a little confused at people who are mad at GitLab here. I’m under the impression that sanctions and export control laws tend to be fairly strict, and penalties for knowing non-compliance are harsh, including the possibility of jail time. GitLab’s hands are pretty tied here.
We should change the rules so that anything that's provided, for free, to the entire world can also be given to sanctioned countries and individuals.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#108TL, DR; is the Nth time I read the same story, someone losing access to something they think they owned. I don't want to sound too heinous or else ..but please don't be so naive to trust github, operated by microsoft,an usa company, with your life work. You own what you can defend. Your github account is not yours. Sober up. Using any service inside USA is a priviledge not a right.
This is Gitlab not Github.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#109Gitlab blocked Iran's Access* This happened because of US sanctions[0]. [0] https://about.gitlab.com/handbook/people-group/code-of-condu...
I’m a little confused at people who are mad at GitLab here. I’m under the impression that sanctions and export control laws tend to be fairly strict, and penalties for knowing non-compliance are harsh, including the possibility of jail time. GitLab’s hands are pretty tied here.
There are tens of thousands of companies in the US which actively provide web-services, and which do not actively go fishing for accounts that may possibly be Iranian. Are they all possibly facing jail time?
Is there a requirement to actively monitor the service for possible Iranians? What kind of actions are required specifically to be safe from jail? Is it a requirement to actively block IPs? Spoiler: These things are not specified.
Maybe we should be angry with the US government for the lack of legal certainty provided to its citizens.
However, given that no one in a situation like Gitlab has been prosecuted, maybe their hands are bound after all.
Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access
#110Earlier quoted context omitted.
>Also worth noting that GitLab has previously banned hiring from China/Russia, so it's no stranger to blanket bans of questionable nature. I wouldn't consider not hiring from countries with aggressive foreign policies and non-democratic governments that use coercion on their own citizens (including employees of said company) as questionable. GitLab's main job is to protect it's company and it's customers not to try t…
> countries with aggressive foreign policies If we go by that logic, the U.S. would get on that list. > non-democratic governments that use coercion on their own citizens If that was indeed the standard to go by, I'd agree, but the list would then need to be much, much longer and possibly include even some traditionally democratic countries like Australia who have an actual law where they can force employees to secre…
>If we go by that logic, the U.S. would get on that list.
I put an AND in my statement for a reason, please don't cherry pick parts of sentences.
>The list would by these metrics include well over half the world.
That's like saying that if you don't want to die you should live in a cocoon and never leave the house, rather than just making sure to avoid the most dangerous activities. GitLab is blocking the countries it sees as the most risky and carry the least cost in blocking. I'm sure their lawyers would love to block half the world but that would cost them too much.