So recently I became unable to access any content on this site without using a VPN of another country, it used to work fine around two months ago, I’m located in Syria
fedoraproject.org works fine, only discussion subdomain is returning access forbidden
Censorship is a major problem in non-democratic countries.
This often comes with “collateral damage” and requires a client-side solution.
How is that related? Apparently my IP address is blocked FROM the subdomain’s server, I don’t even see a reason for blocking IPs from my country, it’s a QA site for FOSS, not an online store or anything trade-related.
There are a lot of similar problems in countries like Russia.
They sometimes ban entire subnets affecting unrelated services.
Are you sure it is not blocked by your ISP or government?
Fedora follows US laws and regulations on exports: https://docs.fedoraproject.org/en-US/legal/export/
Quoting the full text here in case you can’t access the above link:
By contributing to or downloading Fedora content, you acknowledge that you understand all of the following: Fedora software and technical information may be subject to the U.S. Export Administration Regulations (the “EAR”) and other U.S. and foreign laws and may not be exported, re-exported or transferred:
(a) to a prohibited destination country under the EAR and the U.S. Department of Treasury, Office of Foreign Assets Controls (currently Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Syria, and the Crimea Region of Ukraine, subject to change as posted by the United States government);
(b) to any prohibited destination or to any end user who has been prohibited from participating in U.S. export transactions by any federal agency of the U.S. government; or
(c) for use in connection with the design, development or production of nuclear, chemical or biological weapons, or rocket systems, space launch vehicles, or sounding rockets, or unmanned air vehicle systems.
You may not download Fedora software or technical information if you are located in one of these countries or otherwise subject to these restrictions. You may not provide Fedora software or technical information to individuals or entities located in one of these countries or otherwise subject to these restrictions. You are also responsible for compliance with foreign law requirements applicable to the import, export and use of Fedora software and technical information.
Fedora software in source code and binary code form are publicly available and are not subject to the EAR in accordance with §742.15(b).
I don’t know if or why there is a difference between fedoraproject.org and any subdomain. It may or may not be intentional.
discussion.fp.o is hosted by a third-party Discourse via fedoraproject.hosted-by-discourse.com, maybe that is related.
Unfortunately, we are forbidden by US law (with, as I am told, serious possible penalties) to provide software, technical in formation, or services to, or get contributions from anyone located in a “prohibited destination country” under US Export Administration Regulations, as Justin links above.
We this have long-standing project guidance (from Fedora Legal to FESCo):
Sponsors (or any other contributors) in Fedora should not make any effort to determine a contributor’s nationality, country of origin, or area of residence. If a potential contributor independently (and explicitly) reveals their nationality, country of origin, or area of residence, and that nationality, country of origin, or area of residence is in one of the export restricted countries […], then they are required to bring that information to the attention of Fedora Legal.
And, unfortunately, once this comes to our attention, we don’t have any options: I’ll need to the account of the person who started this topic and noted their location in one of the prohibited areas.
I think this is very unfortunate, and counter to Fedora’s goals to make the whole world a better place. There are plenty of places in the world where people are doing terrible things yet which aren’t on the list, and the overwhelming majority of people (to the point where that’s an understatement, even) in the prohibited areas want peace and deserve to be part of free and open source software in general and Fedora in specific. But, as I said… we don’t have a choice.
I am working with Legal to pursue some possible exceptions, but I’m told that this is difficult, costly, and even with a lot of work and expense, a long shot. However, there isn’t much more we can do.
There’s a (rather important) word missing here.
It is deleted.
Since we’ve been gone through this before: Have we at least contacted that poor guy and explained things before shutting the door to them?
In the past, we’ve had people find out they’re “banned” liked this because all their Fedora credentials had been removed, without prior communication. I do hope you’re not forbidden to communicate to them beforehand.
If you are: Please talk to someone outside US jurisdiction before, and let them/us proxy the communication before we shut out anyone geo-based.