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Iranian Players Blocked From World of Warcraft Due To Trade Sanctions
cold fjord writes "Is this the end of the world . . . of Warcraft? Maybe for Iranian gamers who are undergoing a forced morale check due to tightening sanctions cutting access to their game of choice. From the article: 'Iranian players of "World of Warcraft" ... have found themselves frozen out by Blizzard Activision Inc., the American company behind the game. Iranian role playing enthusiasts have spent much of the past week peppering Blizzard's message board with complaints about how they weren't able to log on to the service — only to be told recently that U.S. law was to blame. "United States trade restrictions and economic sanction laws prohibit Blizzard from doing business with residents of certain nations, including Iran," the company said in an email sent to players last week...'"
Thanks to the sanctions, they can't get refunds either.
I remember growing up during the Cold War, and being taught all the pro-U.S. propaganda: The Russian space program sucks. You don't need papers to travel in the U.S. unlike the USSR. U.S,. citizens were free to travel anywhere, unlike those poor Soviets. Only Poland cracked down on labor unions and dissedents. And so on.
It was only after I grew up and learned to see through the bullshit that I realized that was all lies. We had been lied to just as much as the Soviets. The Russian space program is filled with firsts that American students never learned about (we only got the NASA stuff and a brief mention of Sputnik). You DAMN SURE DO need papers to travel in the U.S. (try getting pull over by a cop sometime and tell him you have no identification, driver's license, proof of insurance, and registration and just see what happens, or try coming here sometime to see if the cops accept "We don't need no papers, this is America!" in lieu of your passport/green card/visa). Polish labor unions weren't the only ones that got cracked down on in the 80's. And American are ABSOLUTELY NOT allowed to travel anywhere they wish (try joining your European friend on his vacation in Cuba sometime if you think so).
And if you're American you are also prohibited from doing business with any country the American government doesn't like (which are usually the ones who dared overthrow one of the U.S.'s corrupt puppet regimes).
Land of the free...not so much.
So they move to private servers.
Careful with that Blizzard. You're acting like you've never heard the phase "Somebody set up us the bomb."
Because obviously there's nothing more likely to inspire outrage and violence than nerds denied their gaming habits.
This will be the straw that breaks the camel's back, and returns Democracy and Freedom to Iran, decades after the CIA took it away.
I think that last part is just Blizzard actually, lol. I would think that receiving $50 or whatever from services provided to an Iranian then getting told that's not allowed would mean you have to undo the trade by giving that $50 back.
Given the hardline stance in Iran, I would think all western games would be banned for being un islamic in the first place.
Life is not for the lazy.
I'm always shocked at just how much American culture has spread world wide. And the thing is - it often works in our favor. Iranian kids playing WoW can't in any way benefit Iran that I can think of, but has multiple benefits for the U.S. Someone from the gov should be on the horn right now getting those accounts reactiviated.
It's hard to believe that's how Micronians are made. Why don't we see it right now by having you both kiss one another?
Could this force Iran to stop enriching uranium? What if Steam followed suit...what would happen then?
obvious redundancy is obvious
The US has just pissed off a few hundred more Iranians. Ahmadinejad couldn't be more happy.
I have a feeling that bored Iranian computer savvy individuals, newly irritated with United States foreign policy, could backfire.
The Bureau of Industry and Security, US Department of Commerce, is the place to go to see the appropriate regulations. See, especially, the Export Administration Regulations, the Commerce Control List (especially), and the Lists to Check list. (Yes, there are so many lists that the lists themselves have a list.)
Wouldn't F2P solve this situation since there is no business transaction?
I swear they give me mod points to shut me up.
There have been no recent changes that would require them to no longer provide WOW in Iran.
I don't like the war mongering Republicans like Bush, McCain, and Graham, whom have wasted lots of money in Iraq, were Libya happy, and now want action in Syria. We should lift sanctions against Cuba, and be friendlier with nations that pursue alternate economic systems, like Venezuela.
Still, if you want to travel across the country without identification, take a bus. A suicide bomber on an airplane can kill hundreds. On a bus... only tens of people, if lucky.
Iran is ENRICHING URANIUM, the hardest step in the manufacturing of nuclear weapons. Iran could easily BUY nuclear fuel rods from other nations, such as France, Japan, in addition to RUSSIA and CHINA ie, the nations on the UN security council that have OPPOSED sanctions on Iran. Iran will have to develop and run an expensive nuclear infrastructure for a small number of nuclear reactors, unlike, France and Russia, whom already have decades of experience, and have economies of scale from large numbers of their own reactors, and sell too many other countries, including the United States. That's right, America gets most of its civilian fuel rods from other nations. In light of that, it seems illogical from Iran to operate an indigenous civilian nuclear power program, when it can buy for less from friendly nations, and avoid suspicion.
Iran - the Leeroy Jenkins of nation states.
Screw those guys!
Seriously, nothing but trouble from Blizzard, I learned my lesson the first time.
Now I just remind people about that first time, people forget Blizzard's history and buy more crap from them.
I look at this story and laugh, who couldn't see some stupid crap like this coming? Blizzard will always be blocking something alright-- it's users.
As an aside, Why are there domains with .ir if we're blocking Iran?
IR domain names can be freely registered but there are some restrictions for registering Second-level domains :
ac.ir – academic (tertiary education and research establishments) and learned societies.
co.ir – commercial/companies
gov.ir – government (Islamic Republic of Iran)
id.ir – personal, every one have National Number from Islamic Republic of Iran
net.ir – ISPs and network companies approved by IRTCT
org.ir – non-profit organizations
sch.ir – schools, primary and secondary education
Oh I see, "we're" not blocking Iran, Blizzard is.
Someone's integrity is a shitpile anyway you look at it,
The State Dept, NED, Freedom House or Blizzard
All of em are shit, I say.
go ahead and play your stupid fucking game. Oh wait, if your in IRAN you can't.
Ya know, I don't really give a crap if they want to block Iran, but the question I wonder is why the fuck did they lay a cable to Iran to connect them up in the first place if they are so fucking hostile? Or is it like I say, one big fucking lie. State Dept - to sub pieces of shit like NED - to even sub sub like Freedom House or Freedom XYZ.. Pussy Riot, why not block Russia too Blizzard? China Too? Korea too?
Hell I'll fuckin help ya with your IPTables..
0.0.0.0/8 ... repeat this pattern
1.1.1.1/8
255.255.255.255/8
Now ya don't have to worry about shit, no packets from Iran.
productive members of their society.
You have issues not to mention a bad grasp on the English language. Step away from the keyboard for a few minutes... things will get better.
Please take an anger management course sometime soon. It would benefit us as much as it would benefit you.
they should realize, just as in a country south of Florida, that there is a responsibility on their part as to whether they will be supporters of the status quo, or just complacent, or whether they have a responsibility to take their destiny in their hands and participate in making change happen.
I have relatives that fled that country south of Florida and support in various ways the downfall of its current leader(s), and they in turn have relatives still in-country that support their position, and at the same time have relatives that have a devotion and reverence and fully support the current leader(s).
You live in a situation where your leaders are antithetic to freedom, it is your responsibility to effect change. Whining over ability to play a game shows how effectively your/their leaders are able to distract certain parts of the populace.
Did NASA ever have a rocket explode and kill 48 of the Engineers? Don't get me wrong Russia has a functional space program, and is going to make mistakes just as we have, but I think blowing up a Large Number of engineers would shape the opinion of people during the Cold War that their space program sucks. That one little Vostok-2M rocket probably set them back a decade in talent.
If a cop pulls over someone with no Drivers Licence and no Insurance they have proven that they shouldn't be driving. You need insurance because the risks while driving is high, and you need a licence so that you can actually prove you know how to drive. If you want to walk from LA to NY go ahead, but be sure not to go through Death Valley, I hear it's a pain this time of year. And AZ probably isn't a good pick if you're not white, but that's why their immigration laws were challenged, and challenged as being a little too much unamerican.
And if you want to go to North Korea so Badly by all means go, no one will miss you. I'm sure they will be fine if you just walk in without an ID or Papers without telling them that you're coming. You'll have a job already lined up and ready to go.
I remember reading the agreement for using an Oracle 10g client a few years back, and one section was that you can't have been born, or be a resident in a list of countries, which included Iran. Needless to say, my friend (who was born in Iran and held dual citizenship) just installed and ran it anyway.
Yeah, lets solve all Blizzard business troubles by making their entire business model to give their game and services away for free with no business transactions at all!
F2P, we loose money on every gamer but make it up in bulk.
What a moron. And if you comment on how F2P leads to cash sales... exactly how would those not be blocked by sanctions as business transactions? I had hoped I would not need to point this out on a tech forum but apparently I do.
Please BMOC, nominate yourself for a Darwin award soon.
Ah, WoW, afaik, still has the largest userbase of any MMO, or very near the largest. There's lots of smaller games that survive and even thrive on the freemium model. I don't think Blizzard has anything to fear from going F2P if they haven't already. As you said, they would be better suited to make it up in bulk.
Oh, and, why you so angry?
I swear they give me mod points to shut me up.
Quit whining and set up a fucking vpn.
...that's all Iran wants - a million pissed off teen/twenty-somethings will a whole lot o' anger and a newfound whole lot o' free time on their hands...
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Why is this an issue? Guess what, the online yarn store also can't sell to them, or puzzles R us, or any other businesses. This is why it's called sanctions. You aren't supposed to be doing business with them in an attempt to influence policy change.
Shoot us both in the foot, hope it hurts them more - is the thinking behind trade sanctions.
In this case, it hurts the US more than it hurts the Iranian government. What does the Iranian government care if some kids can't play WoW, even better maybe they do something productive with their time as well as spend the subscription fee in Iran. The US government on the other hand loses tax revenue from Blizzard losing subscriber revenue. Win! Good job America.
And in the larger case, the business that the US and Europe now won't do with Iran, has all gone to India and China. Win again!
Ah, WoW, afaik, still has the largest userbase of any MMO, or very near the largest. There's lots of smaller games that survive and even thrive on the freemium model. I don't think Blizzard has anything to fear from going F2P if they haven't already. As you said, they would be better suited to make it up in bulk.
I'd add "and talk to Valve about how Team Fortress 2 is doing if you're still not sure", but I don't think the folks at Valve would be able to hear you. Not over the sound of all that money pouring in.
Iranians can't pay to play a bad game that feels more like a job.
Doesn't anyone think of the implications, the consequences, of such a move? Iranian kids will no longer be able to play WoW, instead they might learn and study, and be better engineers than ours who are able to continue wasting their time. It seems the US is hell bent on trying to give other countries an edge in technology.
And here I was thinking the US doesn't like the Iran. How wrong I was, they even help them increase their productivity!
We used to have a Bill of Rights. Now, with the rights gone, all we have left is the bill.
Guess this proves they can IP block a whole country. So now there excuse FOR NOT BLOCKING China is gone. DO IT YOU BITCHES!
Lots of illegal stuff going on at all levels of government, and U.S. society, for that matter. Our Constitution prohibits almost everything noteworthy the government does these days.
Nothing to see here, move along.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
I thought it said that Iranian prayers were blocked.
Haven't they been threatening to build their own internet and cut it off from the world anyway? Then they wouldn't be able to connect, so it's just giving them a taste of that ahead of time.
See [treasury.gov] for sanctions on Iran. I believe that Swift (the international wire system) recently removed all Iranian banks from their service making international wires into Iran all but impossible. linky [huffingtonpost]
So while it may not be illegal to take money from Iran the US government doesn't look kindly on sending money to Iran.
BTW, it was a tweaker ghetto neighborhood, so my clean, white, sober, unarmed and sans contraband persona should not have been too menacing.
My only crime was being new to the area, so I had to be personally rousted by four of the locals (three times by one of them, last time he gave me back my doobie) until they knew who I was. Some thing to do between calls, apparently, and they left me alone once they figured out I only do beer and weed.
There's simple ignorance, and willful ignorance, as well. Almost as common as brainless drones, and neck-and-neck with the paranoid schizophrenics.
A verrry small minority are actually reasonable folks who've merely been duped into disagreeing with me.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
I would require Blizzard set aside the funds so that if/when the sanctions get lifted they can either process the refunds or reinstate the accounts. Otherwise how much money has Blizzard "gained" by doing this??
Any person using FTFY or editing my postings agrees to a US$50.00 charge
Players that have mastered the game of WoW will most likely be able to use tools such as TOR to be able to proxy bypass any limitations they place.... /. as well !?! ;)
unless the fear is more if you are caught using TOR then you would go to jail for doing so...but this I am uncertain about in their laws right now...maybe someone from there may answer me, unless they blocked
Kinda funny how little impact Sharia would have on me, or even Communism.
ya.. you show 'em America.. ban them "terrorists" from playing a video game with other people in the world.... sigh... There is no hope left for America. period.
Oh, that would have to be the court. So you get arrested and THEN you can argue the case that there was no reasonable suspicion.
Except it's too late now.
Fine! We will build our own internet! With blackjack and hookers!
This could very well be the end of the world...........of Warcraft!
Iranian productivity just doubled lol
Iran had a secular democracy in 1953. The CIA helped overthrow it and installed a dictatorship. Then the US puppet's security arm, Savak, worked with the CIA to kill off, imprison and exile the left. By the late 1970s, the only independent bodies in Iran were the mullahs, and the informal relationships bazaar merchants formed. Thus when the economy collapsed, and repression intensified, the mullahs and bazaar merchants were at the forefront of the revolution, they were the only independent bodies the CIA had not wrecked.
Then Americans have the gall to stick up their nose and whine about theocracies. Of course, Iran is a secular paradise compared to somewhere like US puppet regime Saudi Arabia. In Saudi Arabia, women are not even allowed to drive cars. So why do we hear this theocracy stuff for Iran but not Saudi Arabia? Would it have something to do with the government (which has popular support, and some democratic forms - much, much more than Saudi Arabia) not asking "how high" whenever the powers that be in the US say "jump"? The gall and hypocrisy and rose-colored glasses of imperial-happy Americans seems unlimited, only planes flying into their war-planning pentagon buildings seem to wake them up from their stupor for a short bit.
So true.
No way would I live somewhere as hellish as New York (hurricanes), or Minnesota (mosquitoes), on a year-round basis. (Or lots of Canada, either.)
British Columbia has some nice temperate places, OTOH, so don't over-generalize. I hear there's nice places in NY, but I'm skeptical. The non-First Nations I've met seem like they may have hint of a Scottish accent, though maybe in some of the blizzardy parts they have ex-Swedes? As I said, I wouldn't live somewhere too difficult. I plan to upgrade from California to Oregon, and eventually on up to B.C. someday.
They feared that it could be used to suppress protest or support unpopular rule.
Estimated GNP up almost 200%. Experts remain mystified as to the reason behind this sudden surge in productivity.
when most people think that the strength of a country's existing nuclear reserves, other people think it's all there on the acquisition of information
If we are trying to slow down Iran's nuke development, shouldn't we be encouraging them to play WoW? The US government should be sponsoring free WoW accounts for Iranians.
Nowhere near bullshit. A driver's license is a license to drive. Without it, you are driving illegally, and are subject to various charges. With it, the ability to track your driving skills, along with the ability to revoke it if your skills deteriorate or you become a danger exists. And it has always, at least in the last 50 years or more, been used as an identity card, whether to identify you to a law enforcement officer, or to buy alcohol.
What Russia/USSR did and possibly still does between the old USSR countries, is to require not only identity cards, but papers as well. Those papers include permission to be where you are, along with permission to be at your intended destination. Can't explain where your intended destination is? Wrong papers? Wrong date? Guess where your new destination was? It starts with a g, has five letters and ends with a g. And the top poster is correct, the poster he's commenting on is full of inaccuracies.
There is no guarenteed way to determine where the computer is located or the user based on IP. It's just an educated guess as to where the use is and blocking a list is stupid. The company shouldn't be blocking a list of IP addresses. Unless they know or believe that a user behind an IP address is in Iran they shouldn't be blocked.
Your problem with New York is hurricanes? I would have said my problem with New York is New Yorkers.
"Lack of speed can be overcome. In the worst case by patience." --Znork
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Iranians should roll a new president.
This, however, didn't stop the USA government doing it.
Does it matter if there's a law or not against being a communist when you're going to be punished by the state for it either way?
NO.
Well NOW there is finally a good reason US should go to war against Iran! Those poor subjugated people need American democracy...