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Comment by ddevault | Hacker News Reader

Hey Nat, since you're on the line here, can I ask for more details about how this process might apply to other software forges? Were you able to secure a general exception for your line of business, or is it specific to GitHub? If the latter, how difficult/expensive was the process?

Great work, by the way. Kudos as well for committing to a DMCA abuse fund.

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The license is specific to GitHub.

However, we don't want this to be a competitive advantage for GitHub; developers should choose GitHub because it is better, not because it has a license from OFAC. So we have taken it upon ourselves to advocate for OFAC to allow developers in Iran and other sanctioned countries greater access to all platforms, and we will continue to do so.

This kind of change would likely require an update to OFAC’s regulations, the issuance of an updated general license, or the issuance of formal guidance from the agency. We hope that OFAC’s issuance of a license to GitHub will help pave the way for broader access to similar platforms.

Are you concerned that the first time someone from Iran posts something controversial (eg. "Opensource Nuclear enrichment centrifuge control algorithm") that the license will be knee-jerk revoked with no notice?

Logically speaking, if someone shared such code from Iran, that would be the opposite of what the US government is concerned about. It would be import into the US instead of export.

Github might need to take down something like that from any developer regardless of country, because of other export laws, concerning nuclear technology. But I don't think that would result in punishment of the developer's country. But IANAL and the rules are complex.

If it is posted from Iran how can it be under US export laws?

Once it's on Github, if it leaves the country it's hosted in, that's export.

If it goes through US servers to anyone outside the country, serving it would be exporting it.

Yes, but re-export is covered under a separate regime. Intellectual property served royalty free does not have a correspondent item in internal processing and re-export regime.

Thanks for clarifying, and for working to open things up for all platforms, I really appreciate it.

Luckily, your code is open source so those in Iran can run their own instance locally.

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