Slashdot Mirror
SourceForge Clarifies Denial of Site Access
Recently there were some complaints from certain users outside the US stating that they were no longer able to access SourceForge.net. SF.net (who shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) has outlined the reasons for these bans, and until someone with sufficient power to alter US law or the lists governing who is allowed to access what data from where, there is unlikely to be a change in these bans. It is worth noting that SF.net is not alone in these difficulties, as the same problems have been reported from other repositories, like Google Code. "As one of the first companies to promote the adoption and distribution of free and open source software, and one that still puts open source at the center of its corporate ideals, restrictions on the free flow of information rub us the wrong way. However, in addition to participating in the open source community, we also live in the real world, and are governed by the laws of the country in which we are located. Our need to follow those laws supersedes any wishes we might have to make our community as inclusive as possible. The possible penalties for violating these restrictions include fines and imprisonment. Other hosting companies based in the US have similar legal and technical restrictions in place."
You can't just move the server to another country, as they would still be an American company. The law holds true to any American company, regardless of where they host their servers from. Technically, they could host their servers in Syria, but they would still be expected to block any Syrian users from accessing it.
Tequila: It's not just for breakfast anymore!
I don't see a single person who is complaining about this, offering to help fund moving SF.Net elsewhere.
Not so easy when you have to foot the bill, is it?