Switch issues and CI to GitHub

[Sam Kuper]

On Tue, Jan 25, 2022 at 06:56:04PM +0200, Sergey Ponomarev wrote:
> Speaking about GitHub and access to it from sanctioned territories
> this is a really big concern. [..]

Thank you for corroborating that concern.

Some news reports, think-tank analysis, and legal guidance providers
suggest the current sanctions will be extended in unspecified ways, if
conflict escalates further in the region.  If that happens, I would
*speculate* that for instance GitHub might end up blocking Russia.

    "Washington is trying to maintain transatlantic unity to build a
    credible threat of sanctions as a deterrence against Moscow."

    https://www.theguardian.com/world/2022/jan/25/us-uk-and-europe-totally-united-in-the-face-of-russia-threat-to-ukraine-biden-says


    "If [Russia] launches a [new] military assault against Ukraine,
    Western sanctions should target the Russian economy in a major way.
    ... If the Kremlin choses lesser forms of aggression, consider
    strong sanctions anyway  ...  the United States and the European
    Union (EU) should use all options at their disposal, including
    intensified export controls."

    https://www.atlanticcouncil.org/blogs/new-atlanticist/what-if-russia-invades-ukraine-again-consider-these-options-for-sanctions-escalation/


    "In order to prepare [for possible imminent sanctions, Western]
    businesses should do the following:

    -   Identify all of their activities which relate to Russia and/or
        Russian counterparties and/or Russian origin goods

    -   Review (and expand if necessary) existing KYC to identify all
        Russian counterparties and their beneficial owners ..."

    https://www.lexology.com/library/detail.aspx?g=839e7b81-ee92-40bb-87ca-4d9e96eeccb8



> But let's be honest: that's not only GitHub but any website in the US
> or in NATO countries,

I may be wrong, but I think some code/issue-hosting sites, including in
the USA or in other NATO jurisdictions, are accessible from sanctioned
territories.

Potentially, that means SourceHut or CodeBerg would be better solutions
than GitHub in this (and other) respects.  Certainly, I could find
nothing in their terms and conditions to indicate that they block users
by territory:

https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/branch/main/TermsOfUse.md

https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/branch/main/PrivacyPolicy.md

https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/branch/main/en/bylaws.md

https://codeberg.org/codeberg/org/src/branch/main/Imprint.md


https://man.sr.ht/terms.md

https://man.sr.ht/privacy.md



(Basically, IIUC - IANAL - sanctions are intended as deterrents to
commercial activities.  Non-profit or volunteer activities are less
affected.

I would *hope* that humanitarian activities - like developing free
software that extends the usable life of computer and network
infrastructure - would remain unaffected by sanctions, except insofar as
commercial US hosts like GitHub might be barred from involvement.)


I will write to SourceHut and CodeBerg to ask whether they block users
by territory.

Sam

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