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SourceForge Removes Blanket Blocking

Posted by ScuttleMonkey on from the power-to-the-people dept.

Recently there was much gnashing of teeth as SourceForge (which shares a corporate overlord with Slashdot) started programmatically blocking users in certain countries to comply with US export restrictions. Thankfully they didn't let it end there and have found a way to put the power back in the hands of the users. "Beginning now, every project admin can click on Develop -> Project Admin -> Project Settings to find a new section called Export Control. By default, we've ticked the more restrictive setting. If you conclude that your project is *not* subject to export regulations, or any other related prohibitions, you may now tick the other check mark and click Update. After that, all users will be able to download your project files as they did before last month's change."

6 of 147 comments (clear)

  1. Liability? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    So they are letting people "opt in" to remove export controls. Who is liable if the code is subject to export restrictions, SF or the developer?

    1. Re:Liability? by Reason58 · · Score: 4, Interesting

      So they are letting people "opt in" to remove export controls. Who is liable if the code is subject to export restrictions, SF or the developer?

      Is Google liable if I Gmail you restricted encryption algorithms?

  2. Duh by Locke2005 · · Score: 3, Interesting

    Why not simply host the servers in a country that doesn't have brain-dead restrictions on the "export" of ones and zeros? One that doesn't classify encryption/decryption code as a "munition"?

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    I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
  3. Hmmm by mewsenews · · Score: 4, Interesting

    As a Canadian locked out of Hulu and Comedy Central's web clips, I wish geolocation based on IP would burn in hell already.

    That being said:

    There was a Syrian developer commenting on the story about the original announcement, he was justifiably pissed off that Sourceforge had decided to deny him access to his own work. Does this change allow him to work on his project in peace?

    Has Slashdot decided to stop mentioning that Sourceforge is owned by the same parent company? They're sure trying to do some damage control by going straight to Slashdot's front page with their weird opt-in workaround..

  4. Huh? by leuk_he · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I can code. I am not american. I am not a lawyer. People are downloading from local mirrors, not from USA. How can i say if the project should be restricted or not?

    Why does the USA government not build a firewall to prevent exporting any American byte to the restricted list?

  5. Debian has never found this sort of blocking... by John+Hasler · · Score: 4, Interesting

    ...necessary. Why has Source Forge suddenly decided that it is?

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