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AppDefects
Community Champion

Microsoft GitHub Starts Blocking Access

Microsoft has officially begun blocking access to GitHub repositories from countries that currently face U.S. government sanctions. That list includes the Crimea region of Ukraine, Cuba, Iran, North Korea, and Syria. This affects developers residing in these regions. GitHub used to be an open and free platform for everyone... thanks Microsoft 😞

 

Ps. Here' s the official GitHub policy on trade controls.

11 Replies
Flyslinger2
Community Champion

Good for MS.  Being an American owned company and still operating mostly within it's border it's rewarding to see that they honor both ethical business practices, the law and Murika.  

 

According to the article users had plenty of warning and the change was executed in phases.  It wasn't a surprise as some were quoted to say.

 

Countries that do not have other peace loving countries at their best interest shouldn't reap the rewards of those countries.  

AppDefects
Community Champion


@Flyslinger2 wrote:

Good for MS.  Being an American owned company and still operating mostly within it's border it's rewarding to see that they honor both ethical business practices, the law and Murika.  


Please provide your definition of "Murika"

Flyslinger2
Community Champion

U.S. of A.

AppDefects
Community Champion

Sounds very polite. 

vt100
Community Champion

I have seen firsthand, what division forced on nations does to people and can tell you that it will not benefit us. It serves the interests of few at the expense of many. It sows mistrust and suspicion and it feeds animosity.

 

The idea of the shared platforms, Open Source, the Internet (not ARPANET) and the World Wide Web, was always intended to erase the division lines, make collaboration easier and allow for those who happen to be on the wrong side of the border to partake, as well as share. It created markets and developed ties. It increases our interdependence and reduced the likelihood of apocalyptic armed conflicts. 

 

The nature of interconnected systems, while does not preclude smaller bad actors from doing their deeds (that’s how we ended up here), keeps heavyweights ultimately interested in keeping them running.

When technology approaching status of utility is being yanked out from those relying on it, even with advanced warnings, what effect do you suppose it is going to achieve?

 

If you’ll look at the list of international scientific publications in the past 20 years, you see people from otherwise not too friendly countries increasingly collaborating on fundamental issues and major developments. This is for all of us, for the present and future generations, for the betterment of the mankind.

 

By enforcing political agendas du jour through our globally present technology giants, we are losing perspective and are shooting ourselves in the foot.

Flyslinger2
Community Champion


My current USA customer is 100% R&D.  They think that they are totally outside of the boundaries of rules and applying security to their product.  Their bosses in the Pentagon completely disagree and I'm stuck in the middle with trying to execute a thoughtful but complete IA assessment without bringing a major system to a halt.


 


Federal law is written for a reason.  It is to protect our nation from outside threats and to ensure our livelihood, prosperity and freedoms that we want to enjoy.  Those rules that MS is abiding by are there for a reason.  The rule of law first, and the chips fall where they will after that.  

I'm a huge fan of open source resources.  I've been a huge proponent of it when HSP12 was announced.  I counseled the Dept of Commerce and best sources of technology that could meet the goals and not break the bank or require massive amounts of engineering effort and delays. It still must be executed legally, thoughtfully and for the best interests of the customer.

These countries that want to nip at our heals through terrorist activities, drug smuggling, human trafficking, should not be rewarded with the ability to gain access to technology that could be used against us as well.  You don't continue to enable that misbehaving child by plopping more cookies in front of them when they were told not to get in the cookie jar.

kloro2006
Newcomer I

An essential ingredient of the FOSS community is internationalism. Gates has called us communists and his attitude has not changed.

 

kloro2006
Newcomer I

Are you saying that because I'm a Cuban or Irani I should not be allowed to communicate with people in the United States on subjects like AI or programming?

denbesten
Community Champion


@kloro2006 wrote:

Are you saying that because I'm a Cuban or Irani I should not be allowed to communicate with people in the United States on subjects like AI or programming?


That is the concept behind "economic sanctions", but at the same time, this is not a political board, so this question should be risen in a different forum, not here.