US blocking Iranian IP addresses

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Shorts
by Shorts
28-Feb-2010
 

Dear All, (especially those of you joining us from the U.S. State Dept. and Office of Foreign Assets Control, OFAC),

As you know, the Iranian government filters certain websites resulting in hardship to the Iranian people. What you don’t know is that the American government does something similar which not only causes hardship to the Iranian people but to the American people, at least to me.

Software companies such as Microsoft, Google and many others such as phone manufacturers offer free downloads of their products or components of their products. Unfortunately, when users from Iran try to initiate a download, the company’s website detects that they are in Iran and kicks them in the face and tells them they are not allowed to download the product because they are in Iran.

Now, for the people working in the Iranian government who have high-speed access, VPN capability, ability to use proxies to disguise their IP address and the desire to “outsmart” the US government, it is no problem to circumvent this hurdle and in addition, it may even provide some entertainment/satisfaction in the process. However, to the average Iranian, even those who can somehow, with perseverance, download the product, it is a source of offense. (If you have not felt the sting of someone kicking you in the face due to your country of origin, trust me, it’s not fun.)

Now, who cares about the Iranian people? No one, ok, fine. But the fact is, I do! I need them! I need their help. Since the deliberate, final destruction of our American Persian departments after 9/11, I have come to depend on them to learn Persian and the most significant part of my “project” has been the development and prevention of abuse of technology, specifically in Persian computing. Escaping the persecution, we American students have been forced to pack up our Persian and take it to the nooks and crannies of the virtual universe. Many normal Iranian citizens have been acting as my Persian teachers since well before 9/11. It is their patient help which has brought us not only Persian instructional materials but also basic tools such as fonts and keyboards which we all need. Persian cannot afford these destructive policies.

I hope you will please consider lifting the ban on Iranian IP addresses as soon as possible. If the idea was to hurt the Iranian government, it has backfired. You are helping the Iranian government (and thank goodness the Iranian government does not retaliate and impose sanctions on us!) and you are hurting American citizens.

Connie Bobroff
Persian Linguist

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19.5% enriched uranium is

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what should be next?


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It for protection

by yahoo_yabo on

US wants to protect the children from accessing sites where men especially iraqis take off their shirts and start beating their chests.

or to make things worse, use a knife to cut your scalp or forehead.

I am still wondering how this non sense got adopted by the SECT of "Rationalsim & Reasoning"...some things just dont make too much sense.......

Ahmadinejad says US preventing Mahdi from showing up....hmmm...I guess 1000 years in hiding and wait until US gets this powerful and now uses this excuse for not showing up

try a better one...


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by ConnieBobroff on

People telling me to please hold out a little longer, it will surely have a happy ending...


Zara

Still hoping for an explanation

by Zara on

Connie,

I've heard your cries of despair in other forums as well as this, and I beg you please to explain.  There are people who care very much about Persian language, literature, and by extension, Persian teaching, who are NOT inside the vortex and don't have a clue what you are refering to.  If you can't take the trouble to make yourself clear even to people like myself who are concerned and friendly, what hope do you have of changing anything?  Please, just spell it out. What is this "deliberate, final destruction of our American Persian departments after 9/11"?


ConnieBobroff

Thanks for your support

by ConnieBobroff on

First of all, I’m the author of the above article but I had posted that in another place and I guess one of the Iranian.com admins saw it and reposted that here under what appears to be a column called “shorts.” That is fine but I did not post that originally in ic because—and don’t get offended, you are all very nice, I love you all—but how can you understand issues related to Persian language and IT if you are not inside the vortex? How can I describe to you all that is going on in Persian? If I describe for you any one day in the life of someone in Persian, you will say, “No way! That can’t possibly be happening in the USA.” Even my friends in Iran—and I thank them so much for always being there through this long night—have, on occasion exclaimed, “Wow! You are worse off than us!” This is what I meant when I wrote a comment a couple days ago to this article:

//iranian.com/main/2010/feb/economizing-my-way

No one who cares about Persian can support this IP blocking, even if they support all the other kinds of sanctions.


hamsade ghadimi

shorts

by hamsade ghadimi on

as others have mentioned, i don't think that these companies' actions are politically motivated.  there are no patent or trademark laws in iran.  one can purchase any software at a fraction of its price.  this is an economic decision.  sadly, many iranian citizens suffer from the actions of their incompetent and brutal government including lack of proper regulation on intellectual rights.  furthermore, u.s. government agencies that handle trade issues work on behalf of u.s. companies regarding marketing of domestic firms and fair trade.  they would not intervene on behalf of the welfare of non-americans. i'm sure that you can continue with your persian project through many academic institutions and iranian expatriates in the west.   good luck.


David ET

a note

by David ET on

I agree there should not be such block for Iran as the government can circumvent but is the public who will suffer.

But having said that , the problem you are facing in part may not be only about Iran. I have been to other friendly countries and unable to access or download certain sites as some material are intended for within US for security purpose (even some videos).

So -in part at least- this is not only directed at Iran.


marzutra

Javadagha

by marzutra on

It's not just the senate and congress that are controlled by AIPAC. Google and Microsoft are also controlled by the Zionist Joooos.


Javadagha

And that is an old Western trick for misshaping public opinion!!

by Javadagha on

First I thought this is similar to “air tight” sanctions which Fred keeps advocating on daily and some days on hourly basis. LOL.    If I say Eye-ranians are moftkhor wa namak nashnas, you could see the reasons posted in most of the replies.     Iranians are smart and have created their own software and hardware.  NEVER forget Iranian contributions to IT.      IRI pursuing nuclear power has nothing to do with access to internationally available software.  If the USA can violate international laws that it signed in Algeria (called Alger Accord), then USA companies will violate any laws against the countries that do not bend toward the Western countries.    

The USA senate and congress are controlled by big gorilla called AIPAC.  They are spending millions of dollars to force lawmakers to go against International norms and standards.

 

The Western media and the political powers provide the erroneous accusations; history provides the corrections.  Here is some facts:

Uranium enriched to 3.5% is what Iran needs to run its power reactors to produce energy. 19.5% enriched uranium is what it needs to produce medical isotopes for treating and imaging cancer in its hospitals. Uranium for nuclear weapons has to be enriched to 90%. Iran is running out of uranium enriched to 19.5% for cancer treatment in its hospitals and soon will have to shut its medical reactors down. Why is it running out?  Because it trusted NPT and Western countries to purchase it from them.

  It was not Iran’s intent to further enrich uranium. And there is a piece of recent history that the nuclear accusation ignores: the lack, as in Iraq, of any evidence that Iran is pursuing nuclear weapons.    

And that’s an old Western trick for misshaping public opinion: report the error in large letters, but not the correction that follows or put it in small letters and somewhere that no one can see.


Latina

.....

by Latina on

As long as  sanctions are in place, U.S. companies are obligated by law to not do business in Iran which sadly includes the every day person.

You have to go all the way to congress to get this situation fixed.


marzutra

Misplaced anger

by marzutra on

Tell you friends in Iran to address their complaints to their government. If they can convince their government to stop building nukes, then Google and Microsoft will probably change their download policy.


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Another reason they don't give a damn (especially Microsoft)

by I Have a Crush on Alex Trebek on

Is the widespread pirating of software that is going on in Iran. Good luck. I hope they make changes that will help you with your project.