If Germany or other EU countries try to block certain content due to “local laws” what’s the difference if China does it according to their “local laws”? And even the US, home of the free, is not exempt from censorship. It’s not new, but there’s a new case that is especially hard to understand. SourceForge is now blocking IP ranges from certain countries that are listed on sanction lists. I like, though, how they exercise the part of freedom of speech that cannot be touched by these sanctions forced upon them:
As one of the first companies to promote the adoption and distribution of free and open source software, and one that still puts open source at the center of its corporate ideals, restrictions on the free flow of information rub us the wrong way. However, in addition to participating in the open source community, we also live in the real world, and are governed by the laws of the country in which we are located. Our need to follow those laws supersedes any wishes we might have to make our community as inclusive as possible. The possible penalties for violating these restrictions include fines and imprisonment. Other hosting companies based in the US have similar legal and technical restrictions in place.
Read the full post in their blog.
// Oliver