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Microsoft Blocks FSF Donation Website As a 'Gambling Site'

Posted by timothy on from the what-are-the-odds? dept.

An anonymous reader writes "The FSF slammed Microsoft for categorizing donate.fsf.org website as a 'Gambling Site.' Corporate systems that use a Microsoft 'network security' program cannot access FSF donation website because of this and as a result, many people were unable to make donations. FSF has submitted a correction to Microsoft and they are now waiting for a response. However, John Sullivan warned corporate about Microsoft's proprietary network security programs."

5 of 301 comments (clear)

  1. donate.fsf.org is just a redirect by xiando · · Score: 5, Informative

    You can go directly to http://my.fsf.org/donate/ if donate.fsf.org is blocked by your local friendly firewall. You can also use Tor to bypass blocks like these.

    --
    9/11: Never forget it was a false-flag operation
    1. Re:donate.fsf.org is just a redirect by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 4, Informative

      You can also use Tor to bypass blocks like these.

      Eh....

      It is not impossible to block Tor. A standard approach is to have the firewall block all Tor entry nodes, which forces people to use bridge nodes instead. Increasingly, though, there is an approach that is much harder to evade: blocking of connections that match Tor's "fingerprint" i.e. because Tor uses OpenSSL in a way that can be distinguished from Firefox+NSS etc.

      Of course, there is a bright side if you are dealing with a school or corporate firewall: you can always set up a system at your house that you SSH to, and use as a proxy server. That was something friends of mine used to do in high school.

      --
      Palm trees and 8
  2. Re:Microsoft is the bad guy, how exactly? by betterunixthanunix · · Score: 5, Informative

    Why is everyone so paranoid

    https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Halloween_documents

    Even if they don't allow it, maybe they would rather their employees donated in their own free time and not on their network?

    You could at least read and understand the summary (RAUTFS?). It is not just Microsoft's own network; this is something a Microsoft product that is used on numerous corporate networks is doing.

    --
    Palm trees and 8
  3. Re:malice or incompetence? by houstonbofh · · Score: 4, Informative

    You realise that this is not Microsoft Security Essentials, but the network security product, right? So anyone behind it on the network... Like at a company, or corporate guest network, or school, or very badly designed hotel wifi?

  4. Re:Legal Response by LurkerXXX · · Score: 4, Informative

    Or...

    The FSF should realize that twdx.net, their provider, also hosts gambling sites such as http://www.poker-tester.com/ etc, and that their IP may have either been previously used by a gambling site, or was blacklisted in a block along with other gambling sites hosted at that provider.

    It's nice out today and doesn't look like rain. You can take off the tin-foil hat.