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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

#181

Post by gms7777 »

mukundmr wrote: post #56

There is a petition going on to stop these kinds of blocks. You should vote for the petition if you want a change. https://petitions.whitehouse.gov/petition/reverse-policy-whi...

I signed the petition (before I found your comment actually), but I'm generally cynical about the effectiveness of such things. I'm more than willing to call/write to my state's senators/congressmen, but I feel as though since this is an issue of the state department, they're a quite a bit removed from the issue. So I'll throw the question out to the crowd: Who should I contact here?

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

#182

Post by rdl »

coldcode wrote: post #172
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 j…

I agree that the Cuban blockade doesn't help and would ideally be ended; the problem is that Cuban-Americans are a powerful voting bloc and highly concentrated in a single swing state. Plus the policy has been around for a long time. The ideal would be to have some kind of fig leaf event in Cuba (change in leadership didn't seem to do it?) which everyone can use as a face-saving excuse to end the sanctions and normalize relations. Cuba remaining Communist in the way Vietnam is communist would be a great outcome for everyone. Cuba transitioning to some form of socialist-capitalist hybrid would be even better.

Arguably the fall of the USSR would have been an ideal time to end this, even with Cuba remaining communist. Certainly a healthy Castro stepping down would have been a major favor in the 1989-1992 period toward this. I wonder if there was any effort at the time.

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

#183

Post by mehrdada »

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…

Having lived the first two decades of my life, and naturally had to circumvent network blocking, in Iran, I can tell you that's not how they work. Most of the blocking they do is targeted at the masses, and most people actually do circumvent it. People who circumvent their internet blocking facilities do not generally face persecution, as it's basically 100% of the internet users.

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

#185

Post by mehrdada »

antihero wrote: post #65
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…

How common are VPNs?

About 4 years ago when I was leaving Iran, you could see physical establishments (i.e. shops) publicly advertising VPN access. While I'm not sure if you can sell VPN access as obviously as before, I'm quite sure that most internet user do use some sort of circumvention/proxying technology.

I, personally, was always very skeptical about the VPN services sold in the wild. Who knew what machine you were routing your data through was not controlled by the government themselves?

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

#186

Post by smnrchrds »

mehrdada wrote: post #183
bilbo0s wrote: post #176

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"...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…

Having lived the first two decades of my life, and naturally had to circumvent network blocking, in Iran, I can tell you that's not how they work. Most of the blocking they do is targeted at the masses, and most people actually do circumvent it. People who circumvent their internet blocking facilities do not generally face persecution, as it's basically 100% of the internet users.

Exactly.

گر حکم شود که مست گیرند

در شهر هر آنکه هست گیرند

Sorry, I couldn't help citing this particular piece of Persian poetry. Trust me, it's relevant.

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

#187

Post by mehrdada »

sdegutis wrote: post #88
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…

> P.S. Please stop using Google Code. Why?

While there might be broad laws and regulations out there, you have to go out of your way to implement technological measures to restrict access to a certain service. Not all services are created equal: I think it is reasonable to advocate use of services that are more passive in implementing idiotic pieces of legislation and discourage use of the ones that are more restrictive, for whatever reason. It's pure pragmatism, especially when there are alternatives like GitHub. Absorbing legal risks is part of the value a service provides.

Google in particular has been one of the hardliners when it comes to restricting access to users with Iranian IPs. There are other big US companies (like Microsoft, for instance) that are much less active in banning IPs.

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

#188

Post by intortus »

rikacomet wrote: post #2

This is ridiculous! What is the use of being the premier institute in the world, and do just about nothing about such a obvious immorality!? The kids in these countries are already suffering under oppression/war/famine/ you name it.. things you won't want upon yourself, much less on your kids.I know a guy who plays a rpg with me who is from Syria, he is 14 year old, and his school is defunct. Just few months back I r…

The overkill is at the level of the US State Dept and how it implements sanctions on countries that it designates as "state sponsors of terrorism." In some ways it's better to offer education to 99% of the world instead of going to prison and offering it to no one.

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

#190

Post by selimthegrim »

smnrchrds wrote: post #186
mehrdada wrote: post #183

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Having lived the first two decades of my life, and naturally had to circumvent network blocking, in Iran, I can tell you that's not how they work. Most of the blocking they do is targeted at the masses, and most people actually do circumvent it. People who circumvent their internet blocking facilities do not generally face persecution, as it's basically 100% of the internet users.

Exactly. گر حکم شود که مست گیرند در شهر هر آنکه هست گیرند Sorry, I couldn't help citing this particular piece of Persian poetry. Trust me, it's relevant.

"If they tell you to get drunk, everyone in the city is the boss"?
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