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“My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

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Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#141

Post by dingo_bat »

dn3 wrote: post #59
dvt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it just makes it a geopolitical reality that you have to somehow punish Russia when it mobilizes ground forces and forcibly annexes pieces of land. Don't forget that Russian-backed insurgents literally shot a passenger plane out of the sky[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17

I don't mean this to sound aggressive, but would you agree then with sanctioning the U.S. after its actual military shot down an Iranian passenger plane, inside Iranian waters [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

> sanctioning the U.S

They can definitely try. Might not mean much.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#142

Post by kragen »

fkdo wrote: post #127
jMyles wrote: post #56

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Their Github Pages page was censored. They are unable to participate in the maintenance of an open source repository. This was done, according to Github, as a requirement to comply with the laws of its state. If that's not a free speech issue, there are no free speech issues.

Does the first amendment apply to none us citizens/residents?

Yes, but this is sort of the wrong question — the fact that the USSR did not have a First Amendment did not make their official censorship ethically correct.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#144

Post by shmerl »

colechristensen wrote: post #140
shmerl wrote: post #75

So it affects even those who aren't Russian citizens (let's say Ukranian citizens) who live in Crimea?

According to Crimea and Russia and the basic facts on the ground, people living in Crimea are Russian citizens and have been for 5 years, Russia has poured billions into the region's infrastructure. While it was definitely engineered by Russia doing things to violate the sovereignty of Ukraine 1) The US and all the powerful nations around the world do this kind of crap all the time and have a long history of it 2) It…

> people living in Crimea are Russian citizens and have been for 5 years

Russia pressured people, but they could refuse accepting citizenship (though those doing so get a lot of practical troubles there, up to persecution). They can't really force citizenship on unwilling people, despite trying.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#145

Post by shitgoose »

riku_iki wrote: post #124
coliveira wrote: post #106

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If, as you say, people want to be part of Russia, what is the difference? Do they need to be punished for wanting to be part of another country?

Russia would severely punish people who wants to be part of other country (not Russia). It is in both countries (Ukraine and Russia) constitution, that it is against the law to separate territory without country-wide voting.

any country would severely punish people who want to be part of another country.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#146

Post by chinhodado »

dvt wrote: post #130
Hidios wrote: post #85

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Saying Russia did it too and they were much worse about it is not a valid defense of anything.

It wasn’t a defense. Two terrible things happened (let’s assume both accidental). The US admitted Iran-655 was an “accident that resulted in a loss of life” and paid out ~$200k per victim. Russia pretends like MH-17 never happened. Who do you think has more of a moral high ground?

Not defending Russia, just saying the circumstances are a bit different. Iran-655 was downed by a US warship - clear from the outset and no space for argument, while MH-17 was downed by (most probably) Russian separatists with a mobile missiles system, which allows for a lot of deniability, and since they had the chance to deny it they went with it. The US didn't even have that luxury.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#147

Post by kragen »

paulintrognon wrote: post #22
kragen wrote: post #6

During the Cold War, the primary thing that distinguished the US side from the USSR side was that, while speech by USSR people and people sympathetic to the USSR (like, say, CPUSA) was published in the US, publishing speech sympathetic to the US in the USSR would get you arrested. It seems like the US has become what the USSR was: companies who publish speech from people in Iran or Crimea are now violating the law by…

I don't think Noam Chomsky has ever been sympathetic to the USSR, he just said that the US was not much better than USSR. For example in that speach he clearly states that USSR was a a flawed totalitarian system from the start https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06-XcAiswY4 (he has in fact also stated many times that his political views were indeed censored in the US)

I appreciate the correction.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#148

Post by decasteve »

CalChris wrote: post #58
ShinTakuya wrote: post #44

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I don't like what's going in Crimea either, and I support most sanctions against it, but I also don't understand why they should be excluded from open source software participation. On an idealogical basis I reject the idea of OSS being politicised. Otherwise, where do we stop?

Whether it is open source or not, GitHub is an American corporation (owned by Microsoft) and what it does is commercial activity. This isn't a free speech issue. It's not even a corporate free speech issue. This is commercial activity. Whether this is good policy or not, is another matter but it isn't a free speech matter.

The Olympics and other athletic organizations support commercial activity, with many athletes coming to compete from sanctioned countries, where corporations benefit from the activity.

Seeing free/open source software in the same light ideologically is not that much of a leap. There is precedent.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#149

Post by squirrelicus »

ConcernedCoder wrote: post #110
narrowingorbits wrote: post #90

Earlier quoted context omitted.

With taxes, you do.

Yeah, instead you can show your solidarity against it by going to federal prison for tax evasion...

Or you could choose to become a citizen of a country you support instead.

I'm not saying "get out if you're not all in", I'm not trying to be dismissive. But your citizenship and temperament are accidents of your birth, and you have the power to rectify the former.

Re: “My GitHub account has been restricted due to US sanctions as I live in Crimea”

#150

Post by cozuya »

dn3 wrote: post #59
dvt wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

No, it just makes it a geopolitical reality that you have to somehow punish Russia when it mobilizes ground forces and forcibly annexes pieces of land. Don't forget that Russian-backed insurgents literally shot a passenger plane out of the sky[1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Malaysia_Airlines_Flight_17

I don't mean this to sound aggressive, but would you agree then with sanctioning the U.S. after its actual military shot down an Iranian passenger plane, inside Iranian waters [1]. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iran_Air_Flight_655

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