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gavdari
July 31st, 2010, 01:19 AM
Sourceforge is blocking all requests from Iran. I thought one of the points in using open source softwares is to provide free and stable software to all people regardless of their nation and ethnicity. A few months ago, even US released all prohibitions on providing free software to people in Iran. Why the hell are they continuing this?
marshmallow1304
July 31st, 2010, 02:00 AM
I agree that this was a bad deal, but SourceForge has lifted the blanket blocking (http://sourceforge.net/blog/some-good-news-sourceforge-removes-blanket-blocking/) and restrictions are now handled on a project-to-project basis. You should contact the administrators of a project in which you are interested to ask them to change their Export Control settings if possible.
Iowan
July 31st, 2010, 02:14 AM
Nor really a support request - moved to Community Cafe.
MCVenom
July 31st, 2010, 02:50 AM
Let the America-bashing begin! :popcorn: :roll: :popcorn:
hansdown
July 31st, 2010, 03:16 AM
Let the America-bashing begin! :popcorn: :roll: :popcorn:

In before lock.
jerenept
July 31st, 2010, 03:28 AM
It is a risk to internal security to have our enemies using high-quality software, so we ban them from SourceForge.
Mr. Picklesworth
July 31st, 2010, 03:34 AM
Let the America-bashing begin! :popcorn: :roll: :popcorn:

Well, it is an America thing ;)
The US has a lot of embargoes against Iran, which puts services like Sourceforge in a tough spot. Free / open source software isn't above the law. They have to act in good faith and follow the law, which means they can't blindly trade stuff with Iran as long as they are based in the USA and subject to US law.

For example, cryptographic software is considered a munition (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pretty_Good_Privacy#Criminal_investigation).
Dustin2128
July 31st, 2010, 04:45 AM
well that's trashing on the entire point of FOSS software. It's like the reverse gfwc. Maybe they should swap to the pirate ISP going up in Sweden or something.
gavdari
July 31st, 2010, 11:24 AM
US lifted all restrictions on exporting many types of free software to Iran and Sudan on March 2010:
http://www.softwarefreedom.org/blog/?tag=ear
and
http://www.ustreas.gov/offices/enforcement/ofac/programs/iran/gls/soc_net.pdf
But I don't know why many hosts like google projects and sourceforge are banning Iranian users for some harmless software. The blanket blocking is lifted, but still I have not seen a single project admin to change their export settings. I guess they never know about their software availability beyond US boarders...