[liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
Hi Liberationtechers, I just realized Coursera has recently joined the censor club by blocking access to Iranian users[1]. Meanwhile I quote the very first line of their About page[2]: We believe in connecting people to a great education so that anyone around the world can learn without limits. This is not exactly what free and open education means! and I think we should do something about it. Any ideas? [1]: https://twitter.com/Nimaaa/status/428812892452818944 [2]: https://www.coursera.org/about Bests, -- Nima 0XC009DB191C92A77B | mrphs - https://anarchy.io I disapprove of what you say, but I will defend to the death your right to say it --Evelyn Beatrice Hall -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
Coursera says its not them, its an US export regulation. And this is related to all sanctioned countries, including Syria, Sudan and Cuba, not only Iran. I don't think that Coursera decided to do this by itself. Stanford University also offers Coursera courses btw. Andreas Source: http://blog.coursera.org/post/74891215298/update-on-course-accessibility-for-students-in-cuba -Original Message- From: Nima Fatemi n...@redteam.io Sender: liberationtech-boun...@lists.stanford.edu Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:22:33 To: liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Reply-To: liberationtech liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Subject: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
Iranian users are very aware of proxies to access internet due to internal censorship. They will just use them to access coursera :); I doubt it will have much impact on users. On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 10:03 AM, andreas.ba...@nachtpult.de wrote: Coursera says its not them, its an US export regulation. And this is related to all sanctioned countries, including Syria, Sudan and Cuba, not only Iran. I don't think that Coursera decided to do this by itself. Stanford University also offers Coursera courses btw. Andreas Source: http://blog.coursera.org/post/74891215298/update-on-course-accessibility-for-students-in-cuba -Original Message- From: Nima Fatemi n...@redteam.io Sender: liberationtech-boun...@lists.stanford.edu Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:22:33 To: liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Reply-To: liberationtech liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Subject: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
proxy != tor ;) Maybe they can also use lantern and google uProxy... On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 10:06 AM, andreas.ba...@nachtpult.de wrote: The problem is the bandwith. Coursera works with video streams, that means that you can't practically use e.g. TOR. -- *From: * wasa bee wasabe...@gmail.com *Date: *Thu, 30 Jan 2014 10:04:40 + *To: *andreas.ba...@nachtpult.de; liberationtech liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu *Subject: *Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space Iranian users are very aware of proxies to access internet due to internal censorship. They will just use them to access coursera :); I doubt it will have much impact on users. On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 10:03 AM, andreas.ba...@nachtpult.de wrote: Coursera says its not them, its an US export regulation. And this is related to all sanctioned countries, including Syria, Sudan and Cuba, not only Iran. I don't think that Coursera decided to do this by itself. Stanford University also offers Coursera courses btw. Andreas Source: http://blog.coursera.org/post/74891215298/update-on-course-accessibility-for-students-in-cuba -Original Message- From: Nima Fatemi n...@redteam.io Sender: liberationtech-boun...@lists.stanford.edu Date: Thu, 30 Jan 2014 09:22:33 To: liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Reply-To: liberationtech liberationtech@lists.stanford.edu Subject: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:17:00PM +, Amin Sabeti wrote: The main point is Coursera has done something that it's not legitimate. They were (apparently) forced to do this. It's not like Coursera staff woke up one day and suddenly decided to block those countries because they had nothing better to do. Please read: http://hummusforthought.com/2014/01/29/us-bans-students-from-blacklisted-countries-from-getting-a-free-education/ ---rsk -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
My hypothesis has been that Coursera, in the midst of raising venture capital funds, had a broad compliance risk evaluation and this was raised by outside counsel. Based on their blogpost, I suspect they took voluntary action and then reached out to State (or vice versa), who likely informed them of the Syrian General License and are probably working on specific licenses for other countries (this will take months in the best case). While no one would ever likely go after Coursera for continuing the way things were, no one would ever advise them to ignore legal concerns either. Myself and others read into the Iranian and Sudanese exemptions as liberally as we can, and it was clear that this was an unfortunately reasonable interpretation. The law simply has not anticipated the rise of virtual, for-profit, non-accredited, non-degree-granting educational institutions; as such, it falls outside of General Licenses 1 (Sudan) and E (Iran). Hopefully, what will come out of this mess is a new General License, which was the reaction to problems on sport exchanges with Iranian officials last summer, since MITx has been pulling similar moves lately as well. On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:17:00PM +, Amin Sabeti wrote: The main point is Coursera has done something that it's not legitimate. They were (apparently) forced to do this. It's not like Coursera staff woke up one day and suddenly decided to block those countries because they had nothing better to do. Please read: http://hummusforthought.com/2014/01/29/us-bans-students-from-blacklisted-countries-from-getting-a-free-education/ ---rsk -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- *Collin David Anderson* averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
For what it is worth, I have an appreciation for the manner that Coursera proceeded with this, being that they have been open about the process that led to the restriction, that they are apparently reaching out to bloggers, and since they seem to be pursuing a legal remedy. That is far better than some companies, whose new product launches are followed by a need to check if its even available in sanctioned countries or who still won't take action even when their product was specifically named in a Treasury Department document (I hate you Adobe). On top of that, their announcement essentially instructs the public to use a VPN and to not give them reason to know about location -- that's imperfect yes, but it was respectful. On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 8:26 AM, Collin Anderson col...@averysmallbird.comwrote: My hypothesis has been that Coursera, in the midst of raising venture capital funds, had a broad compliance risk evaluation and this was raised by outside counsel. Based on their blogpost, I suspect they took voluntary action and then reached out to State (or vice versa), who likely informed them of the Syrian General License and are probably working on specific licenses for other countries (this will take months in the best case). While no one would ever likely go after Coursera for continuing the way things were, no one would ever advise them to ignore legal concerns either. Myself and others read into the Iranian and Sudanese exemptions as liberally as we can, and it was clear that this was an unfortunately reasonable interpretation. The law simply has not anticipated the rise of virtual, for-profit, non-accredited, non-degree-granting educational institutions; as such, it falls outside of General Licenses 1 (Sudan) and E (Iran). Hopefully, what will come out of this mess is a new General License, which was the reaction to problems on sport exchanges with Iranian officials last summer, since MITx has been pulling similar moves lately as well. On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 8:10 AM, Rich Kulawiec r...@gsp.org wrote: On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 12:17:00PM +, Amin Sabeti wrote: The main point is Coursera has done something that it's not legitimate. They were (apparently) forced to do this. It's not like Coursera staff woke up one day and suddenly decided to block those countries because they had nothing better to do. Please read: http://hummusforthought.com/2014/01/29/us-bans-students-from-blacklisted-countries-from-getting-a-free-education/ ---rsk -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu. -- *Collin David Anderson* averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C. -- *Collin David Anderson* averysmallbird.com | @cda | Washington, D.C. -- Liberationtech is public archives are searchable on Google. Violations of list guidelines will get you moderated: https://mailman.stanford.edu/mailman/listinfo/liberationtech. Unsubscribe, change to digest, or change password by emailing moderator at compa...@stanford.edu.
Re: [liberationtech] Coursera to join censor club by blocking Iran IP space
We ran a piece on this on Tuesday -- not sure if Global Voices' post had any impact here, but some hours afterword, they removed the block for Syria, under OFAC's exception for support of nongovernmental organizations’ activities in Syria, particularly as they pertain to increasing access to education http://advocacy.globalvoicesonline.org/2014/01/29/coursera-blocked-in-syria-by-us-sanctions/ I don't know the rationale for offering this exception for Syria but not for the other sanctioned countries. We are keen to raise more awareness about this in the coming months. Does anyone on this list have contacts at Coursera that they would be willing to share? Would be great to talk to them about it as well. On Thu Jan 30 07:10:31 2014, Joanne Michele wrote: I'm forwarding the letter from my professor to the Constitutional Struggles in the Muslim World class (how lovely for those very same students to get kicked out in the last week of the course). He makes it clear that Coursera had no control over the decision, but I read it as if they knew it was coming. I am disappointed that they haven't publicly fought for their students, though maybe that's forthcoming due to all of the attention. I'm also curious as to what the list thinks of his suggestions for proxies, especially what Colin and others think of the future risks to students in Iran. Thanks, Joanne Dear All, I write this email under protest and with a considerable degree of anger and sadness. Few things illustrate the bone-headedness, short-sightedness, and sheer chauvinism of the political structure of the United States better than the extent to which its ideologues are willing to go to score cheap domestic political points with narrow interests in the pursuit of a sanctions regime that has clearly run its course. You might remember the Apple ad from a few years back, in which the company proudly announced that their machines were now so powerful that they fell under export restrictions: For the first time in history a personal computer has been classified as a weapon by the US government ... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t4dDuocAXTY Well, that was a tongue in cheek quip at their Wintel competitors, but a few years after that same company decided that also an iPad apparently could now a weapon, in a rather cowardly anticipatory cow-tow to an ever expanding and aggressive sanctions regime, when they stopped selling any of their products to anyone who happened to SPEAK Persian in their stores (the company has since lifted that idiotic policy): http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-us-canada-18545003 But you will now be interested to hear that also my course (and anything elseCoursera offers) has been classified, if not a weapon that could be misused, then at least a service and as such must not fall into the hands of anybody happening to live in the countries that the United States government doesn't like. I have thus been informed that my students in Cuba, Syria, Sudan and my homeland will no longer be able to access this course. I leave it to you to ponder whether this course is indeed a weapon and if so against what and what possible benefit the average American citizen could possibly derive from restricting access to it. Be this as it may, I invite those students affected to use services such as hola.org http://hola.org/ or VPN routers to circumvent these restrictions. Let me reiterate that I am appalled at this decision. Please note that no-one atCoursera likely had a choice in this matter! At any rate, rest assured that these are not the values of the University of Copenhagen, of its Faculty of Law, and most assuredly not mine! Let me end on a personal note: as a recipient of a McCloy Scholarship created to foster trans-Atlantic friendship and as someone who spent some of his most formative years in the United States, I have to admit that I am worried about the path this country is descending to. Blocking teaching (and medicine) from people whose government one doesn't like is a fallback into the darkest hours of the last century. As my teacher at MIT, Prof. Stephen Van Evera would have told the people responsible for this: your mothers would not be proud of you today. Your instructor, Prof. Dr. Ebrahim Afsah Faculty of Law University of Copenhagen PS: Below an excerpt of the communication I received from Coursera; I know from previous engagements that there is absolutely nothing they can do in the current legal climate in the United States: As some of you already know, certain U.S. export control regulations prohibit U.S. businesses, such as Coursera, from offering services to users in sanctioned countries (Cuba, Iran, Sudan, and Syria). The interpretation of the export control regulations in the context of MOOCs has been ambiguous up until now, and we had been operating under one interpretation of the law. Last week, Coursera received definitive
