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GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

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Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#71
post #2

Same as Gitlab then[0]. US Sanctions should not affect internet services (so long as they are provided for free)[1], but political pressure appears to be very strong. Personally I find it quite abhorrent, and would cite this as a reason not to use US based companies in future. [0]: https://about.gitlab.com/2018/07/19/gcp-move-update/ [1]: https://www.treasury.gov/resource-center/sanctions/Programs/...

> Personally I find it quite abhorrent, and would cite this as a reason not to use US based companies in future.

Then I’d highly recommend that you try doing that. I consulted for a company once that tried this, and it was an absolute nightmare. Every single piece of technology they used was worse than second rate. Making comments on HN is really easy, backing them up with action, in this case, is not.

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#73

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US: actively developing weapons of mass destruction. Has committed several war crimes and illegally occupied territories in the middle east. Actively funded and continues to fund international terrorism. Israel: ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories in Palestine. Yet Crimea, Syria and Iran are the bad guys (btw Iran was funded by the US - yes same regime that now the US cries against).

Ignorant here; how has the US illegally occupied territories in the middle east? Illegal under which jurisdiction? For an invading force, there would be only potential jurisdictions, no? International and/or their own. If it were International, the US would face sanctions. If it were illegal under US law, how could it persist?

I suppose because there was no UN mandate for it, and the reason for going into Iraq (WMDs) turned out to be false ie. propaganda.

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#74
post #26

If Crimea was unwillingly annexed by Russia, then the sanction is punishing the victim instead of the criminal. If Crimea people genuinely supported the unification with Russia and received sanction for that, then it is a blatant attack on Crimean people's freedom.

pff, ridiculous comment. a region doesn't have the right to attach itself to another state. think about it. a bunch of russians move to somewhere near grand canion, do a referendum and then proclaim it russian territory.

Hey, it happened before

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Texas#Statehood

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#75

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US: actively developing weapons of mass destruction. Has committed several war crimes and illegally occupied territories in the middle east. Actively funded and continues to fund international terrorism. Israel: ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories in Palestine. Yet Crimea, Syria and Iran are the bad guys (btw Iran was funded by the US - yes same regime that now the US cries against).

Ignorant here; how has the US illegally occupied territories in the middle east? Illegal under which jurisdiction? For an invading force, there would be only potential jurisdictions, no? International and/or their own. If it were International, the US would face sanctions. If it were illegal under US law, how could it persist?

> If it were International, the US would face sanctions.

Not an expert neither but to my understanding, there is no real "democracy" in the international law scenario, and the US has the capacity to veto any UN resolution. If you notice, the sanctions that states like Syria, Cuba or Venezuela have faces are just a decission of the US.

No wonder so many people talks about "US imperialism"...

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#76

Earlier quoted context omitted.

After ethnically cleansing, who is left / moves in? The perpetrators. I'm sure you will figure it out if you think about it a little more.

don't bother, they re pro russian trolls. a lot of comments here seem to accept russian annexation

Read the thread again. It's pretty clearly anti-annexation

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#77

Earlier quoted context omitted.

US: actively developing weapons of mass destruction. Has committed several war crimes and illegally occupied territories in the middle east. Actively funded and continues to fund international terrorism. Israel: ethnic cleansing in the occupied territories in Palestine. Yet Crimea, Syria and Iran are the bad guys (btw Iran was funded by the US - yes same regime that now the US cries against).

Ignorant here; how has the US illegally occupied territories in the middle east? Illegal under which jurisdiction? For an invading force, there would be only potential jurisdictions, no? International and/or their own. If it were International, the US would face sanctions. If it were illegal under US law, how could it persist?

This is all related to non-existent WMDs in Iraq and UN resolution 1441.

TLDR; It's dubious that resolution 1441 provided legal cover for the invasion of Iraq.

See this[1] for a discussion

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Iraq_and_weapons_of_mass_destr...

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#78

Crimea: Illegal occupation by Russia. Ethnic cleansing. Syria: Using chemical weapons, sponsoring terrorism Iran: Assisting Syria; Actively developing nukes they say they will use, nuclear proliferation, biggest sponsor of terrorism, .... On the other hand, some people can't use an internet service. Oh! The inhumanity! Get a sense of proportion.

The anti-US ideology is strong here, and it's a losing battle speaking reason to ideologues. The ideology is rooted in something I am sympathetic to, even though I am very pro-US. Many here and elsewhere on the internet are either not from the US, or - if they are US citizens - do not personally identify with the power-elite that they feel controls the nation, or with the majority of citizens that comprise the nation…

[flagged]

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#79
‘[…] services such as access to public repositories will remain available to everyone, […] “This includes limited access to GitHub public repository services (such as access to GitHub Pages and public repositories used for open source projects), for personal communications only, and not for commercial purposes.”’

Re: GitHub confirms it has blocked developers in Iran, Syria and Crimea

#80
The US trade restrictions are pretty far reaching. They block companies trading with countries and companies on entity list . It also bans US companies from dealing with companies that deal with countries and companies on the list.

So let us look at this:

1. GitHub becomes a Maltese company. 2. GitHub allows Iranian users to use all features 3. No US company could buy a GitHub Enterprise licence, or a private org.

The export restrictions don't let them notify people that the ban is coming - once they identify the users that are under the Export Restrictions, allowing them to download (aka export) their repos is a breach. They did as much as they could to allow them to keep their accounts at all (and this is only due to export restrictions having exclusions that cover "publicly available source").

GitHub did what they had to do to avoid being censured by the US Gov, and did it better than a lot of other tech companies recently, by leaving some level of access.

If you don't like the ban, and you are in the US, contact your elected representatives, and let them know - it is the only way it changes.

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