Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access • Hacker News Board

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#181

Post by tinco » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:26 PM UTC

jakear wrote: post #134

tinco wrote: post #111

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> Blocking Iranian IPs, as opposed to accounts, is almost certainly over-compliance. Do you have a source for this being over-compliance? Gitlab and Github are both actively sharing technology. It's not like Gitlab randomly decided "Hey let's block Iran today", obviously they have in house legal council who advised this course of action. With regards to your second point, everyone knows there are sanctions on Iran, i…

Just FYI.. you perhaps meant counsel not council, though the meanings are similar enough it can be hard to tell.

Woops sorry you're totally right.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#182

Post by [deleted] » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:28 PM UTC

Siira wrote: post #144

ahelwer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing Iran is guilty of is insufficient deference to US hegemony. Any other charge you levy can have its equal found in our so-called allies in the region, or even the US itself.

As an Iranian, I have to say that while your last sentence might be true (Saudi Arabia sucks after all), I'd still rather live in a world where the opposing superpower would pressure my country to respect human rights and stop funding terrorism, fundamentalism, and misinformation. (See what North Korea's effective foreign immunity has brought its people.) This, of course, is hypocritical on the US part, but hypocrisy…

[deleted]

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#183

Post by jlgaddis » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:29 PM UTC

Siira wrote: post #144

ahelwer wrote: post #19

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The only thing Iran is guilty of is insufficient deference to US hegemony. Any other charge you levy can have its equal found in our so-called allies in the region, or even the US itself.

As an Iranian, I have to say that while your last sentence might be true (Saudi Arabia sucks after all), I'd still rather live in a world where the opposing superpower would pressure my country to respect human rights and stop funding terrorism, fundamentalism, and misinformation. (See what North Korea's effective foreign immunity has brought its people.) This, of course, is hypocritical on the US part, but hypocrisy…

Thanks for sharing your perspective as an Iranian, I find it quite interesting.

I'm curious if:

1) you still live in Iran and/or have immediate family who do?

2) is your opinion common amongst Iranians (and/or Persians)?

3) do/would you still feel the same way if the sanctions brought extreme economic hardship on the people of Iran?

(Considering your remark about North Korea, I'm assuming the answer to the latter is "yes".)

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#184

Post by excieve » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:29 PM UTC

What many don't seem to understand about Crimea, is that Crimea is an occupied territory of Ukraine [0] (as understood by UN, as well as most countries except the Russian Federation and several of its affiliated states).

As an occupied territory, it doesn't have any legitimate institutions (such as a recognised government, banks, courts, etc.) — only a foreign occupation regime. Same way as Germany's Reichskommissariats and Reichprotektorats during WW2 were never legitimate entities despite being de facto governed by Germany.

This means than no contract (private or public) with a Crimean entity can be internationally recognised and will be easily contested by any court/arbitrage outside of the RF.

In addition to this, there's a moral concern of giving legitimacy to a foreign occupation. There's just no way to justify this unless one supports the mentioned occupation, with following systemic abuse of human rights, change of ethnic composition and militarisation.

[0]: https://undocs.org/en/A/RES/71/205

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#185

Post by thaumasiotes » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:30 PM UTC

Siira wrote: post #128

I am Persian. From what I gather, the middle-plus class here still mostly believes that changing the regime is costly and risky (especially since it might very well lead to a civil war, as the regime has no humanity and has shown that it will kill every single one of the people to survive). These sanctions certainly help align our incentives more with the US agenda, but they do not seem to be enough after all. Obama'…

I have basically no background in the subject, but I'd be interested in your perspectives if you feel like answering any of these questions:

- What are the United States' goals with respect to Iran?

- What goals of Iran's are being hindered, objected to, or otherwise meddled with by the United States?

- In the end, dictators know that the Western block is finicky, unstable, and short-termish; This makes it so that high-pressure strategies do not work. Just to be sure I understand this, you're saying that because Western countries (Europe / the US) cannot maintain a consistent foreign policy, their targets (other countries) see the best strategy for dealing with moments of high pressure from the West as being "wait for the pressure to go away"?

- I do not know of a solution, frankly; Most of my peers see immigration as the only viable solution. Solution to what problem? Immigration of who, from where, to where?

Western democracies generally are very bad game-theoretic agents; They play repeated games as if they are oneshots.

I suspect term limits have a lot to do with this.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#186

Post by delfinom » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:33 PM UTC

acdha wrote: post #135

londons_explore wrote: post #107

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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.

That’s getting off-topic: U.S. law currently requires this. Whether or not you agree with that policy, the question is whether GitLab should knowingly break that law, incurring potentially significantly or even ruinous impact to their business, until the law is changed or should they comply while working with their representatives to change the laws? That’s a lot of risk to ask a company to take on for something whic…

The thing about the law is, it's not the company that suffers but employees can and will be thrown in jail. Executives aren't going to stick their necks out.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#187

Post by notsureaboutpg » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

colinmhayes wrote: post #156

opnitro wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does the US? Should everyone be sanctioning us?

Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I'd love a link if I'm misguided. Further, elimination of zionists is still a stated goal of the Iranian government. I'm not saying Israel is guilt free of course, but afaik they've never threatened nuking anyone. Again, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

The US still supports the Mujahideen-e-Khalq which is a terrorist organization.

They were very recently fighting alongside actual ISIS and ISIS offshoots in Syria...

Elimination of Iran is a goal of the US government (they call it the "regime" the same way the Iranians do but the intent and action is still the same)

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#188

Post by delfinom » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:35 PM UTC

vfclists wrote: post #32

Who is the new company Gitlab has switched to, and why didn't Gitlab consider the consequences of their decision? Why doesn't Gitlab simply host their services outside US jurisdiction?

Good luck? Short of moving entirely to China or Russia, they have no chance of escaping us sanction law. If they wish to hold even a european bank account, their bank will force them to comply with the sanctions or they will be terminated.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#189

Post by jlgaddis » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:36 PM UTC

colinmhayes wrote: post #156

opnitro wrote: post #151

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So does the US? Should everyone be sanctioning us?

Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists. I'd love a link if I'm misguided. Further, elimination of zionists is still a stated goal of the Iranian government. I'm not saying Israel is guilt free of course, but afaik they've never threatened nuking anyone. Again, feel free to correct me if I'm wrong.

> Afaik the U.S. no longer sponsors terrorists.

I find that very hard to believe, considering the activities of the CIA -- just the ones we know about -- over the last several decades (or, really, since its beginning).

--

Side note:

Does selling billions of dollars worth of arms to Saudi Arabia count as sponsoring terrorists?

cf. Jamal Khashoggi, et al.

Re: Gitlab Blocked Iranians’ Access

#190

Post by stevefan1999 » Sun, Oct 25, 2020, 5:37 PM UTC

My condolences, but on the other hand, you have to understand that not all open source licenses/projects are borderless, like MIT and Apache they are US-based, and so the curse US cast upon will be effectively apply there too.

Only libre software like GNU and public domain works will probably give you the complete freedom to not be wary of this kind of nation-to-nation wraith.