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Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

blog.coursera.org

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Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#171

Post by hyperplane »

xr09 wrote: post #156
smnrchrds wrote: post #44

As someone who lives in Iran, this is sad but not news. I have gotten used to see half the websites blocked by my government(Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, WordPress, etc) and the other half by your government(Java SE or anything else from Oracle, Google Code, Google Play Store, anything from Xilinx, etc). If one of my favorite websites was blocked, I may have considered not using it anymore. When virtually all websites…

Hi! Cuban here, pretty much same situation as you, I feel your pain, every time I see the little broken robot when attempting to get anything from Google Code I thank we have Github and Bitbucket. If Github gets blocked we should get something on, If only blocked governments took this issue seriously and had these essential services covered, but I guess something as amazing as github takes real starters and not some…

Forgive my ignorance, but who is doing the blocking? Is it American sites willingly censoring for legal reasons, or is the Cuban government blocking them for the country's own ISP?

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#172

Post by coldcode »

rdl wrote: post #24

It would be nice if there were a safe harbor for open source/educational/non-dual-use materials even to individuals in a sanction-restricted regime. I doubt the Government of Cuba (the true target of the sanctions) would get material benefit from free courses for their populace. Certainly only the most indirect and limited military benefit. Unfortunately, as far as I'm aware, the treasury and state restrictions aren'…

The whole Cuban blockade is utterly pointless anyway and deserves to die. After all Germany killed 100,000+ Americans - now our friends. Japan also - now our buddies. China (via Korea) also mostly friends. Vietnam killed 52,000 - now favorite trading country. Etc. Etc. Cuba - no one from the US killed (other than stupid Bay Of Pigs) - not a friend. Why, other than a tiny loud minority of people in S. Florida? If we just opened Cuba and sent them Disney and GM, we'd change their government in a heartbeat. Dollars change everyone's government.

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#173

Post by jotm »

smnrchrds wrote: post #160
jotm wrote: post #146

Earlier quoted context omitted.

How do you pay for the VPN?

Here is the strange part: with debit card. Theoretically the government can identify and arrest all VPN providers in 24 hours. For some reason they have never made a single VPN-related arrest as far as I know. This has led many (including me) believe that VPNs are government honeypots. People are going to circumvent censorship one way or the other. If they provide VPN for those who are really seeking it, they will lo…

That's interesting - I assumed they would block card payments, as well.

Hell, I have trouble paying for stuff in the EU with a US card...

Anyway, VPN providers are NOT your friend for privacy and escaping surveillance/censorship. They actually cooperate with the authorities!

Hidemyass and Astrill used to openly state they will provide any and all details of your identity and activities if the authorities request it!

There's no need for honeypots when all these companies give up your identity with a single call from the police.

They also discriminate against automated tools and robots for whatever reason, as if paying a human to do the work is better :-)

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#174

Post by MisterBastahrd »

acd wrote: post #84

Personally I do not understand the hard grudge against Cuba. My girl friend met a car mechanic from Cuba temporarily living our country who really struggled to make a living and trying to ship home some money for their family. Yes communism is shit bad, that doesn't mean we should shield them from our culture and knowledge. I think opening up our culture to these countries as much as possible makes for the maximum po…

There's nothing wrong with communism. There's everything wrong with communist dictators for life. When one dude basically owns everything in the country, the country ceases to become communist.

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#175

Post by Noxchi »

hyperplane wrote: post #171
xr09 wrote: post #156

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Hi! Cuban here, pretty much same situation as you, I feel your pain, every time I see the little broken robot when attempting to get anything from Google Code I thank we have Github and Bitbucket. If Github gets blocked we should get something on, If only blocked governments took this issue seriously and had these essential services covered, but I guess something as amazing as github takes real starters and not some…

Forgive my ignorance, but who is doing the blocking? Is it American sites willingly censoring for legal reasons, or is the Cuban government blocking them for the country's own ISP?

American sites willingly censoring for legal reasons

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#176

Post by bilbo0s »

rwg wrote: post #82
smnrchrds wrote: post #44

As someone who lives in Iran, this is sad but not news. I have gotten used to see half the websites blocked by my government(Facebook, YouTube, Flickr, WordPress, etc) and the other half by your government(Java SE or anything else from Oracle, Google Code, Google Play Store, anything from Xilinx, etc). If one of my favorite websites was blocked, I may have considered not using it anymore. When virtually all websites…

Is it possible to write a script to scan all the internet (or at least the popular websites) and determine which ones are blocked? If you can find or make a list of websites you want to scan, you can script it. The biggest problem is doing it in a way that doesn't bring you to the attention of those doing the blocking. 1. Where can I find a list of all domain names, top 1000, top 100000? Alexa's "top 1,000,000" list…

"...The biggest problem is doing it in a way that doesn't bring you to the attention of those doing the blocking...."

I think this is a HUGE issue that should not be taken lightly. A guy scanning certain websites from Iran IS going to attract some attention no matter how benign his motives. It just won't be taken lightly. That attention can land you on lists you don't want to be on.

I'm not saying that I don't sympathize with his/her situation... I just think that certain actions can be viewed by people with a security mindset as hostile. Indeed it may only increase the number of sites being blocked. As well as, SEVERELY restricting his/her ability to travel without being arrested. And if you attract enough of the right attention... you may find that being arrested is the least of your worries.

And all of this doesn't even take into account what Iranian authorities may do from their end.

Advice like this, given on a public forum via easily identifiable pseudonyms, should be taken with a BIG grain of salt.

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#178

Post by mbreese »

smnrchrds wrote: post #98
rwg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible to write a script to scan all the internet (or at least the popular websites) and determine which ones are blocked? If you can find or make a list of websites you want to scan, you can script it. The biggest problem is doing it in a way that doesn't bring you to the attention of those doing the blocking. 1. Where can I find a list of all domain names, top 1000, top 100000? Alexa's "top 1,000,000" list…

Thanks. They do not use DNS-based blocking. I will try using the HEAD method if I find a way to do it anonymously.

Be careful, I don't think there would be a good way to do this anonymously without distributing the workload.

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#179

Post by [deleted] »

ekianjo wrote: post #152
repsilat wrote: post #114

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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…

Ok I am not 100 percent sure about that but it does seem that some courses in specializations are only available in this way. EDIT: ok, so you were apparently right. The specialization courses stay free, but it's not so obvious when you are looking at them from the specialization page.

[deleted]

Re: Coursera blocks access to students in Cuba, Iran, Sudan and Syria

#180

Post by [deleted] »

bilbo0s wrote: post #176
rwg wrote: post #82

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Is it possible to write a script to scan all the internet (or at least the popular websites) and determine which ones are blocked? If you can find or make a list of websites you want to scan, you can script it. The biggest problem is doing it in a way that doesn't bring you to the attention of those doing the blocking. 1. Where can I find a list of all domain names, top 1000, top 100000? Alexa's "top 1,000,000" list…

"...The biggest problem is doing it in a way that doesn't bring you to the attention of those doing the blocking...." I think this is a HUGE issue that should not be taken lightly. A guy scanning certain websites from Iran IS going to attract some attention no matter how benign his motives. It just won't be taken lightly. That attention can land you on lists you don't want to be on. I'm not saying that I don't sympat…

[deleted]
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