Once upon a time a controversy about Fedora support for countries suffering from the US embargo, which it ended worse How did you report it? the synflag blog. Now another controversy arises but this time when it comes to contributing to the project.
It all started with a ticket in redhat's bugzilla to check out an rpm package for a show created by one Mohammed Isam. It turns out that Petr Šabata, a sponsor from Red Hat who wanted to back up the package, realizing (and make note on the ticket) of Isam's (Sudanese) nationality asked him to check with Fedora Legal first. Mohammed clarified that although he was born in Sudan, he currently resides in Qatar. In the end the Fedora Legal people told him that everything OK and let the review continue.
This motivated put together a ticket on whether what Petr did was right, what if a sponsor it revealed the nationality of a contributor and this one was from the quintet of embargoed countries (Cuba, Sudan, Iran, Syria and North Korea) could cause problems for you to collaborate in Fedora. It even mentions that in the kernel there is code from the University of Tehran. After a couple of months, this resolution was made.
Export rules are very difficult and very complicated (and they change from time to time). I'm in the process of clearing things up with Red Hat, specifically about Iran (the most complicated area and the one most likely to be found in Fedora). With that said, this is the guide for all contributors as requested in this ticket:
The sponsors (or any other contributor) in Fedora should not make any effort to determine the nationality, country of origin, or area of residence of a contributor. If a potential taxpayer independently (and explicitly) discloses his nationality, country of origin or area of residence, and that nationality, country of origin or area of residence is within the export restricted countries (currently: Cuba, Iran, North Korea , Sudan and Syria), then they will be required to bring that information to the attention of Fedora Legal.
In other words, as they say in English, "Don't ask, don't tell." Do not ask or say anything and watch out for pointing. Here we are all citizens of the world when it comes to contributing free software. Here in GNU / Linux nobody uses pirated software. Etc, etc, etc. If a Cuban had discovered the GnuTLS bug (in addition to creating the patch that solves it) and not Red Hat, they would have had to accept the patch anyway, regardless of how uncomfortable the situation would be.
http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-sQFLzow-ir8/TwDG7w657BI/AAAAAAAAAaE/xS6YQdfn-HA/s1600/wallpaper-ned-stark-1600.jpg
Yeah, seriously, this is really absurd. Still, I hope Fedora doesn't fill up with these trolls that have been bursting Synflag's liver (in fact, he'll need a Hepabionta pill urgently).
And in good time that you say it eliotime3000, since that happened, I stopped entering the Fedora channel in irc as much as before because I noticed that although they did not attack me, no one greeted me or responded and even some friends or close ones left, calling me a search for "shit."
As I said, I continue using CentOS and Scientific for work reasons, but the truth is that I do not contribute anything else to Fedora, now 21 will be released shortly. I am not going to contribute 30 bugs as in the previous one and be on the list of errors in the release for revealing vital bugs, I only report what affects me to MI on my servers and nothing else, and of course as always in kernel.org that have nothing to do with Red Hat.
It is a shame, although yes, I must admit that I speak with the people of Korora, a fork or remix of Fedora, which its founders, who are from Fedora, have told me that they do not agree with that norm and that that was one of the reasons for the remix, not only the issue of the embargo and lack of freedom felt in Fedora when proposing things, but the limitation with acquaintances or friends from countries at odds with the USA.
Whoever says I'm lying, ask them.
One more example of how ridiculous the blocking and export policies in the United States become, as you have said at the end of your publication @diazepan, however that is its law and Red Hat as a company based in that country must respect said laws, although their way of handling this situation is undoubtedly more successful, since no matter where the contribution comes from, a contribution will always be that and something from which the whole community will benefit.
Diazepan: I haven't done this in a long time in the comments DesdeLinux, but I'm afraid you need to pay more attention to spelling, especially the use of the accent. Here I put the corrections for each paragraph:
1. Once upon a time, countries (also in the title).
3. "Sponsor" (it must be in italics or in quotation marks, although it would be better to use "sponsor"), Sudan (in the 2nd paragraph you did put a tilde; without the acendo, it is the 3rd person plural of the verb "sweat").
4. (Quote). Specifically, Iran, area, "The Sponsors" should not be capitalized (I imagine this is a residue of the translation made from the original in English), area (two more times), countries, Iran (again), Sudan.
In addition to spelling, here are other details that affect the writing of your blog post:
- In the notice, instead of "and / or" (which is a carbon copy of English), the disjunction "or" is enough. This is because the notice proceeds if the reader and commentator in question meets at least one of the two conditions: "I don't care if they are anti-Yankee or anti-Castro."
- In the third paragraph, the word "even" appears twice in the same sentence.
- In the first sentence of the last paragraph, a comma would be needed: "In other words, as they say in English, […]".
Apart from these corrections, thank you for sharing this information and inviting international political-social reflection in the context of free software.
Carlos-Xfce
Made almost all corrections. I left it with and / or because it is a logical disjunction and not an exclusive disjunction.
Hello again, Diazepan. I understand what you say about the logical disjunction, although I do not share its use in written language, but hey, it's your article. You only lacked the correction in the title: «countries», with an accent and without a capital letter. Regards.
I see the and / or written many times and that I know is not wrong.
I have never corrected anyone in any forum, but sometime it would have to happen: I think you place a lot of importance on grammar and syntactic correctness, possibly more than is appropriate for context. This being the case, you should take care of the score. It has been more difficult for me to understand your text than the one you suggest correcting, since although the accents and capital letters do not hinder the rhythm of reading and extraction of the message, the lack of punctuation produces a text lacking structure.
Said, I promise, from love, especially by wearing Xfce in your pseudonym.
Long live XFCE
Hi Sdux. When writing a text, everything is important: the use of punctuation marks, cohesion, coherence (local and general), and of course the grammar and spelling. I understand that my text is difficult to understand: I tried to make it as short as possible, but specific enough so that Diazepan could make the corrections that I suggested. Thanks for your comment. Long live Xfce! Regards.
It's sad, I didn't know the news. If this happened in another area outside of programming, for example in finding a vaccine against cancer, or a mathematical discovery, what would have happened?
what would have happened? first that it had not happened in those countries due to lack of resources, secondly knowing the United States, they would have kidnapped the person, they would have given him US citizenship and the issue resolved XD
In Cuba not long ago they made a vaccine against a type of cancer or that they progressed a lot, I don't remember well. I mean that not all countries lack resources.
Yes, Cuba has an excellent level in medical matters. The proposed hypothesis is not ruled out.
We would be, as they say in my land «Pariendo chayotes»
I see it fair, good idea on the part of fedora.
They can't support them, but if they can receive contributions to your code as long as they don't reveal their nationality, that's ridiculous!
You got ahead of me.
The thing is contradictory, ridiculous and convenient for them, of course ...
"I cannot give you support if you are from a blocked country, I shouldn't and I can reserve the right to" How do you find out that you are from a blocked country? Either you investigate it or they tell you, right? But there it is valid.
«You found an error in the system, oh crap, well come, hand it to me but don't tell me where you are from, I don't want to know, I just want you to give me a hand» ...
Damn convenience.
Red Hat… Learn from Novell and SPI (legal side of the Debian project): No bullshit, no trolling, no problem.
Sad but true as METALICA says in one of his songs, many things are out of our reach (I mean those of us who, like me, live in Cuba, one of the 5 countries of the listica prieta) not only Fedora but other services are difficult for us just because we live in those countries, in my opinion it is stupid and impudent on the part of those companies not to give support but to accept contributions from those of us who live in those countries but hey ... I better shut up because @diazepan promised to use the Leather boot with everything that could smell Politica hehehe
I have been a user of fedora for at least 4 years ... but lately there are things that scare me ... One is this that you comment ... and others like this:
* http://worldofgnome.org/whats-next-burning-leonardo-da-vinci-paintings/
* https://bugzilla.redhat.com/show_bug.cgi?id=681339
As always, developers just want to help and contribute without worrying, but the legal department is there to discuss technicalities / bullshit !, and the result ends up being against the projects.
Incredible 😐
From what I see, the matter continues from equal to worse. My time at Fedora was fleeting and, given the circumstances, unique.
But I ask myself the following reflection out loud (and someone answers it, if they know): do other distributions, originating in the US, have problems of this type, or does this only happen in Red Hat?
Greetings.
PS: it seems that I can comment without problems here 🙂
It depends on whether they have a company behind that is based in the United States.
there are many Americans, but RedHat must be one of the few government contractors. It is an uncomfortable place that he occupies, and there were companies in his situation in the past.
Regarding the post, these restrictions are for export, not import. There was a time when Nestcape-Mozilla, Microsoft, etc., due to encryption export restrictions, compiled a browser for the USA and others for the rest of the world (UIN tags of the useragent of old browsers). Debian for the same created a European repository (even they were blocked even though it has German origin), non-US. However, they are global companies and projects, and it is impossible in practice to deny contributions for being a foreigner.
I correct, non-US is the other way around (accessible to the rest of the world and not the US), and it relates to encryption and software patents
Good thing they have already released the US server, since without it, I would not have a good download speed of Debian updates.
All those who reside with legal headquarters in the USA, the issue is that Fedora is the only one that adds the issue of irc support and makes a lifestyle seem the norm.
I do not use or have installed or will install a gnulinux distribution that prohibits its use in a country.
such a distro is not worth being on my CP (personal computer).
from Colombia.
There you've given
It seems correct to me and I think that all open source should use this policy .. "Don't ask, don't tell."
I like the blocking logic. In my opinion, your country hurts its people so I'm going to block it to hurt it more, but hey, I'm the good one.
I understand that red hat blocked because it would have its problems but what I do not understand is why so much fuss is organized for a contribution, is it from a blocked country? Well, you delete the address and take the contribution without checking or milk. I don't think the US will spend a penny to monitor such minuscule contributions, the entire budget goes to piracy xD
single word for fedora attitude, RIDICULOUS as embargo.
And for that reason is that Debian and Ubuntu are used more for servers rather than RHEL and CentOS.
I do not know if it is because of this, I think (from my humble point of view) it is because there are more good control panels for shared hosting and vps for debian / ubuntu than for CentOS that are free, for CentOS there are but they are payments like solusVM or others, and the free ones are not the best out there.
Also, it is always easier to have free support through forums and others of something that is more used, and why Debian began to be used more? for Ubuntu server, and why Ubuntu server? by the simple, one thing leads to another.
Now, I personally use centos for dedicated and vps, which also has xen as well as kvm and the truth is I have not had problems. Also Scientific Linux, and no problems
I do not think it is the fault of fedora, its community, sponsoring company, etc, it is rather the fault of the country it is in, fedora is my daily distro and not because of this kind of thing I will stop using it, although they bother me a little : /
Excellent, friend Diazepan !!!
Well, I live in Cuba and I use Fedora, and in the end the Fedora policy touches my plugins towards my country, I use Fedora because I like it as a system, period, just like I listen to Manowar as musicians but I hate its philosophy.
You have to think as a community and stop being silly, I don't think that because Red Hat is ridiculous we should burn all the Fedora ISOs at the stake.