Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no "paying only" courses on Coursers.
yes they do. recently started.
No, there are not. Please provide link to courses that are accessible only with a fee.
Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
111–120 of 196 posts
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#112Earlier quoted context omitted.
Unlike in the US, where the government doesn't spy on the citizens, everybody has free access to education, free universal healthcare, guaranteed housing and... oh wait.
If you think the way that Cuba is run is the same as the way that the US is run, there is no evidence that will ever change your mind
I don't think both countries are run in the same way, I know they are not.
What I don't know is how you inferred I did think in that way from my comment.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#113A startup in Europe should create a free proxy to use Coursera for these guys living in those unfortunate countries. Berlin, London, Munich, etc. anything?
So that startup can have their Paypal account frozen? No thank you. Probably the best way is to create a Coursera competitor.
There are a few alternatives to PayPal now: Paymill and Sellfy are European companies, for example.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#114Earlier quoted context omitted.
There are no "paying only" courses on Coursers.
yes they do. recently started.
Don't just disagree, provide information if you have it.
I think you were talking about Coursera's "specialisations," which are essentially a grouping of "signature track" courses with a project or exam at the end. All of the courses can be taken for free if you don't care about the special certificates, but the project is just for paying customers.
Udacity is running some "pay only" courses with Georgia Tech for its online masters program, too. Not sure about their other offerings, or about edX.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#115> Why has this not been an issue in the past? > Until now the interpretation of export control regulations as they relate to MOOCs has been unclear and Coursera has been operating under the interpretation that MOOCs would not be restricted. We recently received information that has led to the understanding that the services offered on Coursera are not in compliance with the law as it stands. Accordingly we have insti…
That is an extremely interesting philosophy. So how does this work? If I don't like somebody and shoots him, I can challenge the notion of manslaughter/murder in court?
It means you don't surrender your conscience to your government.
So for example if your superiors, some official from some agency, or the President, asks you to torture suspects, or to monitor the private conversations of every citizen, or to keep so-called "National Security Letters" secret, and they say you have to do it "because it's the law", you can either hide behind authority or try and think for yourself.
It doesn't mean you have to break every law; when thinking for yourself you may arrive at the same conclusion as the legislator, that torturing suspects is indispensable to get the information you need, for example, and that, in your opinion, there is no better option.
But it does mean you lose the excuse of doing something morally objectionable just because someone told you to do it; from that moment on, you do it because you want to.
The reason you don't go around shooting people should be because you find killing human beings repellent, not because you fear getting caught.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#116Earlier quoted context omitted.
Thanks.
If the blocklist is manually curated then the probability of a website being blocked will depend on its popularity. I wouldn't just be interested in "X% of sites blocked," I'd look at "Sites seeing Y% of web traffic blocked" etc.
It is a combination of manual and automatic blocking. Facebook censorship is manual. Dick Cheney Wikipedia page being blocked is because they have added Dick to their automatic blacklist, so it gets censored regardless of the context.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#117> Why has this not been an issue in the past? > Until now the interpretation of export control regulations as they relate to MOOCs has been unclear and Coursera has been operating under the interpretation that MOOCs would not be restricted. We recently received information that has led to the understanding that the services offered on Coursera are not in compliance with the law as it stands. Accordingly we have insti…
"We recently received information" might be a nice way of saying "The US Attorney's Office told us they'd sue if we didn't comply." Even if that isn't the case, others have pointed out that they're covering their arse by doing this.
More generously, it could also be construed as a proactive manoeuvre to get the law changed by upholding it to the letter. They did say they were working with the State department.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#118Earlier quoted context omitted.
Sorry I should have been more clear, I meant, why are you singling out Google Code over the other ones?
Perhaps because it does some extra effort to detect VPNs and accurately block people accessing it from blocked regions? I'd imagine he's frustration is that Google isn't just reluctantly putting a dumb block to obey some external injunction, but seems to put some effort in it.
Honestly, living in China where blogspot/wordpress.com was blocked without a VPN was particularly annoying, I fully support the Iranian guy who says its a pain. USA should realise that people don't give a damn who's at the other end. Speaking of which, look at the freedom USA gives trade and tourists: No Cuba, no iran, no N.Korea, etc.
Come off it, most passports are not half as restricting its almost as if your government is as restricting as N. Korea and you call USA a land of freedom?
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#119Earlier quoted context omitted.
This isn't on Coursera. Take it up with your elected officials.
>Take it up with your elected officials. Yeah, how's that working out? But I totally agree this is not on Coursera.
You need to do more than just vote. Voting provides one bit of information to the electoral process, and you split that one bit between all of your political convictions. Worse, most of that signal is lost in the electoral laundry.
The best info that politicians can get on this sort of thing comes from polling, and people only poll on electoral issues. If you want specific policy change you need to help bring it to the attention of elected officials and electoral candidates.
Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria
#120This is the worst possible measure to deal with those sanctioned countries. As we've seen in the Arab Spring or currently in Ukraine, extremist regimes have to replaced by bottom-up grassroot movements, by the will of the people. Having said that, what could be a stronger weapon than access to education?
You're assuming that the US wants those regimes to be replaced.