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SourceForge Removes Blanket Blocking
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."
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?
This is dumb. The terrorists will just get their mates in another country to get whatever it is they want.
Only the kind of stupid Americans that though that restricting the export of encryption technology would actually work would think of this. What happened there? They all got it anyway.
What exactly do they hope to achieve with this stupidity?
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"?
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.
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..
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?
Yeah. These restrictions make so much sense. Because we all know that North Korea has no way to get access to any servers outside North Korea. And no one can use a proxy server at all. And they really are going to be absolutely helpless without the tiny open-source projects. This is as ridiculous as the old restrictions on exporting encryption (at least those got removed a few years ago).
Great news, and this is a brave thing to do :)
Blindly blocking all SF projects to some people was wrong. I said this before, US export laws should only apply to US products. OpenSource/Free software projects should stay "open" and "free/libre" to everybody. Those who worked hard on these projects, including developers from the banned countries, should have the right to decide whether their projects should be blocked or not.
Some said the law applies to SF just because they host the projects. If the law was strict to this level then the whole internet should be banned to these countries.
Why the hell does anyone even use SourceForge anymore? Their tools suck, the site is beyond slow and plastered with ads, and you have to play download roulette with their crappy 90s-era mirroring system. Plus you get crazy decrees like this from whatever's going on at the top. It's not like there aren't alternatives these days. Google Code is awesome by comparison.
...that projects such as TOR and Freenet exist.
"If a nation expects to be ignorant and free in a state of civilization, it expects what never was and never will be."
The problem is the cost of the special made-in-USA-color-electron-microscope, they have to check each byte to see if it contains red, white and blue electrons.
The USA has compiled a list of the countries it considers most repressive, and attempted to forbid the citizens of those countries from using encrypted communications... I don't think the governments on that list mind.
# cat
Damn, my RAM is full of llamas.
...necessary. Why has Source Forge suddenly decided that it is?
Warning: this article may contain humor, sarcasm, parody, and perhaps even irony. Read at your own risk.
Which developed country is willing to take thousands of refugees from the U.S. copyright regime, software patent regime, mobile phone regulatory regime, and other results of bought senators?
A couple of weeks ago, to ensure compliance with US law as we roll out improvements to SourceForge.net, we began programmatically blocking access to the site for users in certain countries against which the US government imposes sanctions.
`Sanctions` are acts of WAR
So private corporations assist in illegal types of warfare by the US goverment which is legally owned by the deepest pockets.
How can SourceForge allow project admins to circumvent this law that provides for teh safety of all scared american peeple?
I mean, first it is law and now the project admin, who can be non-american -terrorist?- , can decide?
Or any of the millions of the completely open proxy servers.
Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
The number one reason why this is *very* much ado about nothing is that the projects the U.S. Government would have any interest in AT ALL are novel and strong encryption schemes. To satisfy both novel and strong conditions puts one into a *very* small and elite group.
Sure, there are many projects that implement standard/weak/known encryption. That's completely different than a project that implements legitimately novel AND strong to the point of piquing the interest of the BIS/spooks. I don't know for sure, but zrtp might be an example.
An American company can export SSL/TLS/PKI and similar, crypto products without ever drawing the interest of the BIS. I guess at some point in distant history, this was not the case. As someone that actually worked with the BIS on getting encryption export compliance it has been easy for a long time.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
The USA is squandering some of its technological lead and economic opportunities with dumb-ass laws.
I've already had to stop hosting several online businesses in the US due to the patriot act and international customers' unwillingness to have there data stored in the US.
Stem cell research was set back a decade by Christian fundamentalist opposition making its way into
federal law.
Laws restricting export of US software just result in software being innovated faster elsewhere.
As Freeman Dyson once said: The best way to defeat soviet communism would be to ship Apple computers to their population en masse. He was basically right, though who knew it would be cloned PCs that would do the trick.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
My project FileUniq is plain python, and executes a call to "md5" in order to get a hash.
MD5 is non-special (and deprecated anyway) no one at the BIS would give you a moment's difficulty. Worst case scenario, notify the BIS and they send you an official reply. I know this because I've worked with the BIS to export encryption technology. They were very easy to work with and tolerated my inexperience. Call them and explain your situation.
Sourceforge's language is a little daunting. A (new?) lawyer (justifying his job?) at sourceforge MegaCorp probably has quite a bit to do with the entire fiasco.
http://www.maxineudall.com/2010/02/should-economists-be-sued-for-malpractice.html
Some information... only has use for killing. I can't think of any information that would make it easier to kill that couldn't also be used to help prevent death. In the technological realm, almost everything is a two-edged sword. Security by obscurity is a poor means of defense.
I've abandoned my search for truth; now I'm just looking for some useful delusions.