SourceForge Denies Service for "Rogue" Nations
SourceForge, the hosting and communication platform for many free software projects, is bowing to U.S. regulations and denying service to users from nations on the Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) sanctions list.
SourceForge "clarifies" in its blog statement that certain IP addresses from nations on the U.S. OFAC list are excluded from their services to comply with U.S. laws.
The blog goes on to say that, "We regret deeply that these sanctions may impact individuals who have no malicious intent along with those whom the rules are designed to punish." SourceForge was one of the first companies to support and encourage free software and sees open source as "the center of its corporate ideals." However, as the blog commentator continues, "we also live in the real world and are governed by the laws of the country in which we are located," with possible penalties of fines and imprisonment.
SourceForge belongs to Geeknet Inc., under whose roof are also found IT sites such as Slashdot, Thinkgeek and Freshmeat.net. Geeknet, in turn, emerged from VA Software.
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