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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

#231

Post by throwaway4good »

owlmirror wrote: post #200
throwaway4good wrote: post #143

Earlier quoted context omitted.

But Github is reason why git is popular ...

Github sure contributed to the popularity, but I remeber distinctly as Git came out and how it took off like rocket. Git was a "killer app" from it's day of inception and everyone I knew switched their source control to it in late 2005 early 2006. It was a game changer to say the least. Github jumped on a already rolling bandwagon and left me ans many people I knew wondering why the hell you would need to host your p…

Github fixes the problem that most users have with git (but are ashamed / too ignorant to admit): That it is de-centralized.

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

#232

Post by gbrindisi »

xvilka wrote: post #141

Such cases highlight the importance of improving IPFS and Federation protocols, for example for Gitea[1][2] or GitLab[3][4]. Or just sponsoring them[5]. The source code for ForgeFed[6][7] might be also of interest for improvement. [1] https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/issues/1612 [2] https://github.com/go-gitea/gitea/issues/9045 [3] https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/6468 [4] https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/…

that was an interesting rabbit hole you sent me into, thanks for sharing!

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

#233

Post by m000 »

ChuckNorris89 wrote: post #104
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.

>Especially us europeans should not rely on American services at all.It's not worth it. Sure, please let me know how the EU plans to build Office 365, AWS, GitHub competitors of similar scale, quality and success. We have no private investors that would pony up enough money to go against US tech titans and fat chance the EU would ever fund such initiatives and if they would, the money would evaporate over night to co…

> Sure, please let me know how the EU plans to build Office 365, AWS, GitHub competitors of similar scale, quality and success.

There are no such plans. EU wields a lot of regulatory power. The most likely path of action would be to force MS/Amazon/etc. to spin-off their EU side of the business. And I believe that the companies have already prepared for this.

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

#234

Post by throwaway0a5e »

whack wrote: post #110
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…

> You have relinquished so much control, why be surprised if that stares you back in the face? We live in a market-based economy with highly specialized division of labor. The idea of "keeping control" of all our necessities and dependencies, is an archaic one. The system generally works, because we create sensible laws that foster trust, vet for partners who are trustworthy, and name-and-shame entities that violate…

I think it's the opposite. When you're FANG or a nation state preparedness doesn't matter. You have strings to pull to get fair treatment.

If you're a small guy you get screwed and have no practical means of recourse. The little people are the ones who need to care about this kind of stuff.

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

#235

Post by turbinerneiter »

sjagoe wrote: post #212
fibers wrote: post #204

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I'm not a pro dev by any means but what is stopping orgs from simply self hosting such a thing? Git is merely version control which supposedly does not take a lot of resources so you can go ahead and buy a dedicated server and host it in your office. Is the question more so about expanded services like CI/CD that may take up more computational resources to continuously build binaries and other deliverables?

I would say it's less about the compute resources, and more about possibly needing a team dedicated to maintaining quite a lot of infrastructure to replace the features that GitHub has, which is far more extensive than just git hosting.

GitLab, Gitea or others provide most, if not all, and in some cases even more features than GitHub. Theiy are fully or partially Open Source and they are easy to host.

You need to compare the cost of self-hosting to the cost of SaaS - INCLUDING the risk of getting locked out.

One downside of the SaaS model is that you are just a very small customer in the bigger scheme and they can't really justify spending money on servicing you. Let's say you are company of 5 people, paying 50 bucks a month for a service - how many hours per year can they spend on servicing you before you become a net-negative account? You much power do you have in a negotiation if you are a net-negative account?

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

#236

Post by darkwater »

I really wonder why economical penalties enforced to a country through its citizens or people born there or with ancestors like the USA does with all of its embargos aren't considered just as terrorism. You are punishing other people for something they didn't do just to pressure on their governments. Just like terrorists injuring people. (Yeah I know terrorists usually kill people but I'm pretty sure many people died due to economic embargo as well)

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

#237

Post by ChrisLomont »

kitd wrote: post #217
richardwhiuk wrote: post #162

Earlier quoted context omitted.

If the employee was Iranian, then yes, GitHub would be required to do this.

No it wouldn't. https://home.treasury.gov/policy-issues/financial-sanctions/...

"If the employee was Iranian, then yes,...."

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

#238

Post by aaomidi »

Reminder that Microsoft has the power to ask the state department for an exemption from these sanctions for github.

They have refused to do that. Google did that with Gmail and made the argument that Gmail is an important utility for freedom of the people there. Microsoft can do the same.

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

#239

Post by vegannet »

dustinmoris wrote: post #57

Is GitHub going to take itself down when one of their employees goes to Iran for holiday and logs into their GitHub account? If not, then why are they treating others with such contempt?

I can’t speak for Microsoft but certainly at Amazon there was a very strict policy about working from specific US locales for tax liability reasons: it wouldn’t surprise me at all to learn Microsoft employees are quite explicitly banned from ever taking equipment into places like Iran. Would they ban themselves if it did happen? No, but also it should never happen vs. this case where they have an employee working from Iran.

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

#240

Post by Chris2048 »

darkwater wrote: post #236

I really wonder why economical penalties enforced to a country through its citizens or people born there or with ancestors like the USA does with all of its embargos aren't considered just as terrorism. You are punishing other people for something they didn't do just to pressure on their governments. Just like terrorists injuring people. (Yeah I know terrorists usually kill people but I'm pretty sure many people died…

> You are punishing other people.. Just like terrorists injuring people.

Because terrorism implies violence. What kind of deaths result from economic embargo?

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