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US Eases Internet Export Rules To Iran, Sudan, Cuba
coondoggie writes "Looking to facilitate what it calls free speech rights in countries that don't look favorably at such liberties, the US government today said it would ease the regulations around exporting Internet-based applications to Iran, Sudan and Cuba. Specifically, the Treasury Department said it would add general licenses (PDF) authorizing the exportation of free, personal, Internet-based communications services – such as instant messaging, chat and email, and social networking – to those three countries. The amendments also allow the exportation of related software to Iran and Sudan, the department said in a release (the US Commerce Department controls software exports with Cuba). Until now all such exports would have broken federal laws."
Sounds like a good way to gather intel on the people using this technology in these "friendly" countries.
Ocean is land, covered with water.
You need a license to export ?
Better add "free-speech zones" to that list.
Set your phasers on "funky"!
We have a strict policy of saying unkind things about any dictators who we didn't install personally(and a few who haven't been passing their performance reviews since we did)...
Than a country full of sedentary layabouts twittering to each other like chickadees
about the price of spice
and admiring their own portraits on facebook.
Where are we going and why are we in a handbasket?
It's not like my music is some kind of weapon.
You'd think that following the rules would just be a matter of looking up which countries are embargoed, but it's not that simple. In many cases it's not the country that's embargoed, it's specific individuals or organizations - in the case of Iran, it's the Revolutionary Guard, among others.
I'm pretty sure there's a procedure by which I could get a license, and I would be happy to go to all the trouble and expense that would be required. What I'm not looking forward to though is if and when I do get the required licenses, having to explain to the clerk at my post office that I have the permission of the Feral Gummint to mail my music to Persia.
Request your free CD of my piano music.
fuzzyfuzzyfungus, don't say "we". If you got in the way of oil profits, they would kill you, too.
Folks, nothing could be better than trading with your enemies. It has worked for millennia, and will continue to do so. Trade Iran's government into a needy, third-world leech. It's better than a war. Their people are magnificent, intelligent, and just like us in many cases. Hell, they even get all ideological, like Joel O'Steen and such. Let's trade some curry and hookahs for blue jeans, and call off the war, k?
When will the government learn that about the only way people continue to be oppressed through governments is poverty, lack of information, and brainwashing. By allowing citizens of countries with oppressive governments to be opened to art, music, literature, communication and visitors from the "free" world, it will inspire citizens to rebel. Selfishness is a virtue, it helps keep a sane government if there is at least some communication with the outside world. If we would flood Cuba with American tourists, artists, musicians, and brought them computers, cell phones, etc. chances are the dictatorship would fall (mostly because Cuba is well within travel distance from the US, and while some other "free" countries allow travel/etc to Cuba like Canada, they lack the -very- close distance).
Taxation is legalized theft, no more, no less.
You're talking about government. The US government in particular. The day they change the law because they "realize it's stupid", pigs will fly in line abreast over the Capitol.
The only time the law changes is when there is an advantage for those in power to do so (e.g. more money, more power, avoiding a nation-wide civil revolt, etc..) The question, as always, is "qui bono"?
I wonder if this is a result over the attention the issue got when SourceForge had to temporarily disable access to those countries earlier this year?
had you realized to do that sooner, like maybe 10 years ago, a lot might have changed in those countries by now.
Read radical news here
Awww, aren't your generalizations cute!
If I go a hundred years without hearing "The government sucks because the government sucks!", it still won't be enough.
Linux, you magnificent bastard, I read the fucking manual!
I've always figured that the nature of making software available for download on a website based in the US means that if somebody from Cuba downloads it, they are essentially coming to the US and getting the software, then importing it back to Cuba themselves. It may be a subtle difference with software, but with physical objects, the difference between export and import is pretty obvious. Yes, you can always look it as one person is exporting and the other is importing in any given transaction and pretend there is no difference, but take an example of selling a weapon to somebody. If I sell a weapon to somebody in the US and that is a legal transaction, but that person then takes the weapon back to a country that it is illegal to do so under US law, then that person is guilty of trying to import the weapon to a restricted country. Assume I had no knowledge they were going to do as such after the sale of course. If a person in Cuba orders a weapon from me and I ship it to them, I would be guilty of breaking an export law then, as I was the one pushing the weapon to them. So I guess what I'm saying is that the nature of the internet and software downloads equates pretty much all downloads from webservers to the case of a person coming to the US, buying the software, then taking it back with them to Cuba. It never in the past equated to me shipping software to Cuba, so I don't think it was ever illegal (for me) in the past for Cubans to download my software.
Morphing Software
I would think that if your CDs are free, it's a gift and not really an export. I know many Cuban-Americans have been sending gifts to family in Cuba for years with no problems (at least, no problems on the US end).
Support Right To Repair Legislation.
The terrorists have won. Way to send us down the path of dhimmitude O'bama!
Awww, aren't your kneejerk anti-generalizations cute too! We can have a little mutual admiration society meeting right here!
That said, the last principled social reform that I can clearly recall was that of the Gracchi brothers. Look up sometime what happened to them.
(Yes, for the record, sometimes the government manages to do the right thing - interstate highways, for instance. But someone still benefited, and not just in the hazy future. That's the real point here. And if you're claiming that self-interest and money are not a useful metric for evaluating government decisions...well, I just want to know what exactly is in that kool-aid you're drinking)
Oh, and she won't have sex with you either.
This is nice, guys, but when are we going to get rid of the brain-dead(*) restrictions on encryption software, already? As governments and ISPs all over the world have been demonstrating over the past few years, increasing computer power means it is steadily becoming easier to spy on and censor Internet users. To enable truly free communication in the face of a repressive government requires people to defend themselves, through anonymity software such as Tor, Freenet, and I2P, not to mention strong web and email encryption. If the US wants to encourage freedom of speech, it should be promoting the distribution of these technologies, not outlawing their export.
Well, we can hope. This seems to be a small step in the right direction.
(*) Yes, brain-dead; you'd have to be an idiot to think these restrictions do anything to keep encryption software out of terrorists' hands. All they accomplish is to make it more difficult for ordinary citizens of, say, Iran, to protect themselves from their government.
Have they? They say they did it to "foster free speech".
I have a different take.... isn't it so cute, they think they matter!
As if nobody in Iran has instant messaging because....the US government said it couldn't be exported. To even think that a change in US policy on these technologies could now, or ever, have any such effect is either naive to the point of being cute and deserving of a pat on the head.... or so myopic, that their heads must be elbow deep up their asses.
Somebody should give them a gold star for effort.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
The US isn't a perfect country. But when our presidential election results were disputed (Bush vs Gore) no one got beaten, killed, arrested, or severely harassed by the authorities.
... But I still can't go there. Well, at least not from the US. But I might happen to know someone from the US who drove to Canada and then flew to Cuba from Canada (flying over the US to get there of course). Clearly, this is what freedom is all about, right? We have freedom to not travel freely!
Damn_registrars has no butt-hole. Damn_registrars has no use for a butt-hole.
Jesus, both of you need to just stop.
512 MB RAM, 20 GB disk, 200 GB transfer, five datacenters. $19.95/month.
It's about time that Iran, Sudan and Cuba learned the joys of Internet Explorer 6.
Agreed :)
The real stupidity is, the restrictions haven't slowed the flow of information appreciably. People in Cuba who have access to the internet already HAVE all the encryption, etc, that's available to the US. The less wealthy people who can't get ready access to the internet can't get the latest and greatest technology, but then, they aren't the ones who are likely to use this technology against us anyway.
The bottom line is, we are punishing the wrong people by restricting these exports!
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
"but the wrong guy got the power" simply translated, means "my side lost, and I'm a sore loser".
Are you referring to the 2000 election, or the 2008 election? It's hard to tell if you're a "liberal" or a "neo-conservative" with the info you have volunteered.
"Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
In Soviet Russia applications export you!
Well, yeah, but still, when the dust settles, the result is the same: Its the guy that "was wanted to win".
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
I think you're both giving the prez far more credit than he deserves. It's not like he can reign supreme against the wishes of those whose support he needs to stay in power. It's a self sustaining machine that will give you the power if you work in its favor and withhold it should you dare to stray from it.
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
nothing to see here....removing mods.....
Back around '04 I wrote some programming tutorials for a Wiki (gpwiki.org). These included example source files. About once a year I get an email from someone in Iran seeking clarifications or help. Am(Was?) I (or the Wiki) running afoul of US export laws?
This is not about IM or gmail or some other shit like that - this is about anonymity software like haystack (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Haystack_%28software%29) that has been designed to bypass filters and protect people from government surveillance that has been sitting and waiting to be released because of export restrictions that would make its release a crime. The authors have been loudly calling for this amendment for a while and I am glad that they finally got around to it. So instead of dissing the govt, you should be thanking them for doing the right thing, or at least righting a previous wrong.
Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
Trading anything that can be helpful in making IEDs and WMDs to our enemies (the government of Iran for example) is foolish. Admittedly, they can get parts with other methods-- but that doesn't mean we can't make things more difficult for them or slow them down. Having a software embargo, on the other hand, is fucking ridiculous. What will that accomplish? Absolutely nothing. Politicians needs to study this series of intricate tubes before writings laws regulating them.
'Political power grows out of the barrel of a gun.' - Mao Tse-tung
12% of the USA population is in poverty. That's over 30 million people. In the USA, those people are paying for the poor design of USA's society.
The authors yes, maybe, but only because they feel that helping Iranians (cubans, sudanese get around their laws is ok, as long as US law is respected.
What I am making fun of is, the idea that this has any effect on the Iranians. They have always been able to get this elsewhere, home grow it, or get it from people in the US who feel subverting authoritarians is worth doing, even if you can't put your name on it.
I thought this sort of thing was stupid when ITAR regulations prevented the export of RSA, its stupid that they didn't learn that they were attempting the impossible, and looking stupid doing it, when those were fixed... they still haven't learned that lesson.
-Steve
"I opened my eyes, and everything went dark again"
As far as I know (I have been following the situation there closely but obviously I'm not on the ground) is that they have access and been using things like tor - but that this is not the best solution. I haven't heard of a home-grown solution but this is possible. The haystack program was design specifically with the Iranians in mind, and the surveillance strategies of their govt - I know the authors are well versed in the situation there in regards to the internet and they felt this program was necessary so I assume its functionality was not yet available.
It would seem logical that they would have distributed the program through back channels already but I have not heard it being used (of-course they would not advertise it - law or not). In any case this at least allows them to openly distribute it without additional problems.
Control is an illusion, order our comforting lie. From chaos, through chaos, into chaos we fly
That brain-dead restriction was not a problem for RSA and others, they just opened an office in the Cayman Islands and it became encryption imports instead of exports. Something like that had to be done or you could forget about secure international bank transactions.
The restrictions are stupid anyway. We all have to pay a bit more for SuperMicro motherboards because they got find when someone sold servers with their boards to Iran and meanwhile Honeywell are building an oil refinery there which messes up some silly game that is trying to restrict Iran's access to fuel. That sort of resource restricting diplomatic game didn't work a thousand years ago and it isn't going to work now, it just makes enemies among your own citizens that want to make an honest living.
Yeah, but the USA should leave the Cubans alone to design their society the way they want. If it results in poverty, that's their problem. As it is today, the Cubans are poor in direct result of American intervention.
its simply consulting the will of the people. what's western about that? furthermore, what culture exists where people prefer to be slaves and never be consulted about what they want from their government?
the idea that cultural differences leads to democracy not working in a particular society is extremely insulting to whatever culture you claim to speak for. you are basically saying the people in that society prefer to be slaves
being able to vote only to one bad candidate is not significantly better than being able to choose between 2 bad candidates (and the same corporations writting the laws behind both of them), and the media is too controlled to have in the big numbers anything related with free will in the population
yes, because in democracies, the media is strictly controlled, while in nondemocracies, it is completely free. furthermore, all candidates in democracies are chosen by the secret conspiracy of corporations and media execs. if you believe either of those these things, and that ONE candidate and COMPLETE CONTROL of the media (in nondemocracies) is therefore superior, or even remotely equivalent to democratic expression, you're a moron: you've replaced your intelligence with the most braindead and patently false form of cynicism. you even admit to it, you say "one bad candidate is not significantly better than being able to choose between 2 bad candidates". yeah, there's plenty wrong with corporate influence and media herd behavior in democracies. but as YOU say, it is still BETTER. "not significantly". LOL
so you'll choose the government where some asshole doesn't care what the hell you think to rule over you... because that's your culture. you're so full of shit
intellectual property law is philosophically incoherent. it is your moral duty to ignore it or sabotage it