Re: A followup on github discussion
On Friday 26 July 2019 11:39:51 Reco wrote:
> On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 09:12:48AM -0400, Roberto C. Sánchez wrote:
> > On Fri, Jul 26, 2019 at 03:53:50PM +0300, Reco wrote:
> > > So, dear list,
> > >
> > > this is just a quick followup on discrimination practices employed
> > > by GitHub.
> > > Today it was brought to my attention that GitHub has restricted
> > > access to users who live in countries that have US sanctions
> > > applied - [1].
> > >
> > > Therefore, if somebody is still had any doubts that GitHub does
> > > not respect software freedoms - leave any hope. GitHub is
> > > unsuitable for hosting free software.
> >
> > Well, that's a very nice slant you put on the issue. As a public
> > company in the US, GitHub is expected to respect US law.
>
> And last time I've checked, so is Software In Public Interest.
>
> > Certainly there are instances where civil disobedience is called
> > for, but violating export regulations is perhaps not the best
> > choice.
>
> And the same logic can be applied to SPI and therefore Debian Project.
> Or, maybe not?
>
> > Also, the article which you linked explicitly states that they are
> > working with regulators to help them understand that GitHub
> > providing services in sanctioned markets actually *supports* the US
> > government's foreign policy objectives of free flow of information
> > and free speech.
>
> And it also mentions, quoting:
>
> Users are responsible for ensuring that the content they develop and
> share on GitHub.com complies with the U.S. export control laws,
> including the EAR and the U.S. International Traffic in Arms
> Regulations (ITAR).
>
FYI, that depends on whose ox is being gored. There was a time when
linuxcnc, then called emc, which could even then control a 9 active axis
milling machine, to carve any curve, was verboten to export because of
ITAR. No one else had the machinery to carve quiet submarine screws, so
our coastal hydrophone network could, just by the sound of the subs
screws identify which Russian sub by name was backing away from the
docks in the north sea.
But Hitachi America shipped a 5 axis milling machine, with emc installed,
to someplace in the far east. And all of a sudden in terms of the cold
war clock. everyone had silent screws. So that noticeably tipped the
power balance in the cold war. We eventually shut down the hydrophone
system since a Russian sub had to get within a few miles of our shores,
by which time our satellites had it spotted and tracked it. But we did
send the message by sitting down on one of theirs long enough the
commander got on the horn and said his air was really bad and he was
losing men. So we backed off, but we have air recyclers on our nuke
subs so we only surfaced to let them know they had well and truly lost
that battle. That sub commander probably went home to a firing squad.
That was long before Gorbachev. Submariners being a different breed of
people, I heard they shook hands and saluted each other before they
parted. But no pix, so that could be story embellishment.
As far as I know, Hitachi America was shamed but never charged, not even
a slap on the wrist, but since the cat was truly out of the bag, emc was
removed from the ITAR list. Now its world wide and still showing other
controller makers how its done.
> Reco
Yeah, I'm an old fart, born in 1934, I lived thru that era, even helped
build some of our ICBM's installed out in the middle of western S.D.
Sometimes so close to a 50 kiloton sitting on top of a Titan One I could
lean on it while I talked to the guards.
This is way offtopic, but I was not the first to mention ITAR, so please
don't start a flame war.
Cheers, Gene Heskett
--
"There are four boxes to be used in defense of liberty:
soap, ballot, jury, and ammo. Please use in that order."
-Ed Howdershelt (Author)
If we desire respect for the law, we must first make the law respectable.
- Louis D. Brandeis
Genes Web page <http://geneslinuxbox.net:6309/gene>
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