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GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

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Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#151

Post by jfrunyon »

BatteryMountain wrote: post #105
EdwinLarkin wrote: post #74

Entrusting your business to an american entity is the stupidest idea you could have thought about. Especially us europeans should not rely on American services at all.It's not worth it. American corporations are just as much a liability as their counterparts in China.

I'm in Africa and most companies here host their systems either locally (very expensive and slow) or in America. The other day at work I had a pretty heated argument at work with a colleague when I mentioned it is really not good for us to host any of our stuff in America (all of it is currently in America). He basically freaked out about it. I just wanted to hear his thoughts about it, but he took personal offence (…

Money and skills are ALWAYS problems. Those are "cheap" and "fast" of the "cheap, fast, good, pick two".

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#152

Post by jojobas »

icelancer wrote: post #136
tpoacher wrote: post #133

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Both you and the person you replied to are right. They are not mutually exclusive points. Famous example: MS Windows having a marketshare of 96% should not necessarily stop you from designing your business around linux.

Sure they are. Propose an EU or non-Chinese Asian alternative to AWS that is, say, 80% as efficient/effective. If that's not possible, then choosing AWS for your startup/scaling business is not the stupidest move you can make, assuming AWS fits your use case. "MS Windows having a marketshare of 96% should not necessarily stop you from designing your business around linux" But Windows doesn't have this kind of markets…

Microsoft can't ban you from using Windows or developing software that runs under it.

Amazon can sure kick your company off its services.

For many startups AWS is a no-brainer, which makes life somewhat harder for anyone who wants to deal with Iran from EU (as long as EU allows it) and not be shut down on a US three-letter agency's request.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#153

Post by x3c »

cies wrote: post #71
factorialboy wrote: post #34

So many dimensions come to play here. 1. There's the obvious legal aspect i.e. how these laws are framed and interpreted. 2. Then there's the geopolitical aspect. Is it fair to impose sanctions on Iran. 3. There's another aspect around GitHub policy that asks if an entire organization be banned for the location of one team member. 4. Finally, there's the aspect of relinquishing control. Your app development is on the…

> Ironically, Git is a decentralized version control system. And Git is open source. Github is a US-registered company under MS. The US has a history of weaponizing its economic power. Stallman (RMS) was right once again.

This particular case was overreach by Github and not the US Lawmakers.

https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/...

  118. I have a client that is in Iran to visit a relative. Do I need to restrict the account?

  A: No. As long as you are satisfied that the client is not ordinarily resident in Iran, then the account does not need to be restricted. See FAQ 37.
Source: https://twitter.com/Hamed/status/1346433510786138114/photo/1

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#154

Post by jhasse »

throwaway4good wrote: post #143
cies wrote: post #71

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Ironically, Git is a decentralized version control system. And Git is open source. Github is a US-registered company under MS. The US has a history of weaponizing its economic power. Stallman (RMS) was right once again.

But Github is reason why git is popular ...

I doubt it.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#155

Post by Closi »

icelancer wrote: post #129
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the companies in the EU produces enterprise software almost no one on this website uses (SAP) What? SAP is a huge software that is used in a lot of companies.

Correct. I'm also willing to bet the people on Hacker News are not typically in the circle of businesses that use SAP.

I'm willing to bet that they are.

Do you think there is a huge tendency towards Oracle, Infor or MS Dynamics rather than SAP across hacker news, or are you just assuming that people who go on hacker news aren't in the 'circle of companies' which need an ERP?

Most people on HN probably go work for companies that pay them the best compensation or offer them a good position, not based on what ERP they chose.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#156

Post by f6v »

astura wrote: post #131
mola wrote: post #76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

One way to fight a law is civil disobedience.

You won't get that from Microsoft, they do a lot of business with the US government.

But consumers can express their stance by not doing business with MS. I believe that communities have enough power in this age.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#157

Post by dtech »

icelancer wrote: post #129
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #124

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> One of the companies in the EU produces enterprise software almost no one on this website uses (SAP) What? SAP is a huge software that is used in a lot of companies.

Correct. I'm also willing to bet the people on Hacker News are not typically in the circle of businesses that use SAP.

You underestimate the reach of SAP and overestimate the "SV-ness" of HN.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#159

Post by jfrunyon »

brmgb wrote: post #96
cies wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how GH gets shit for what the US has as laws. I'd focus my outrage on the law, the lawmaker, and those who uphold it. GH is merely trying to go by the book/ avoid penalties, as expected.

The US embargo prevents doing business with Iran. Providing service in Iran would be a violation of the embargo. Blocking a whole European company not conducting business with Iran because one of its employee tried to login while there is not respecting the embargo, it's just overreach. GitHub should get flak for that in the same way Paypal regularly get flak for randomly freezing accounts.

> not conducting business with Iran

> its employee tried to login while there

Those two statements are incompatible with each other.

Re: GitHub blocks entire company because one employee was in Iran

#160

Post by quietbritishjim »

brmgb wrote: post #96
cies wrote: post #75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Funny how GH gets shit for what the US has as laws. I'd focus my outrage on the law, the lawmaker, and those who uphold it. GH is merely trying to go by the book/ avoid penalties, as expected.

The US embargo prevents doing business with Iran. Providing service in Iran would be a violation of the embargo. Blocking a whole European company not conducting business with Iran because one of its employee tried to login while there is not respecting the embargo, it's just overreach. GitHub should get flak for that in the same way Paypal regularly get flak for randomly freezing accounts.

> GitHub should get flak for that in the same way Paypal regularly get flak for randomly freezing accounts.

If GitHub freezes your account, this is obviously serious and can impact your business to a greater or lesser extent depending on what your business does. But the data is not lost, and you'll likely have a copy of at least some of it (the actual repos) and maybe all of it if you were being careful.

If Paypal freeze your account then any money in it is simply lost (and your loss is Paypal's gain!). There's no way you could keep a "backup" of that money even if you were being careful. It's completely incomparable.

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