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Choose a Platform that Supports Private Downstream Forks in Syria #15

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Bengt opened this issue May 13, 2020 · 13 comments
Closed

Choose a Platform that Supports Private Downstream Forks in Syria #15

Bengt opened this issue May 13, 2020 · 13 comments

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@Bengt
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Bengt commented May 13, 2020 •
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Disclaimer:

I am not a lawyer and this topic touches on international law, so verify before making a decision.

User Story:

As a user located in Syria, I want to fork CWA and work on it in private, while downstreaming changes from this repository.

GitHub does not allow that:

[...] due to U.S. trade controls law restrictions, GitHub is unable to provide private repository services [...] to accounts in [...] Syria [...].

Source: https://help.github.com/en/github/site-policy/github-and-trade-controls

In contrast to the US', the EU' sanctions on Syria are more narrow in scope:

The [...] export of arms [...], as well as equipment which might be used for internal repression, to Syria [...] shall be prohibited [...].

Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02011D0273-20111114

The EU regulation allows anything that is not immediately an arm to be exported:

[The restriction] shall not apply to [...] non-lethal military equipment or of equipment which might be used for internal repression, intended solely for humanitarian or protective use [...].

Source: https://eur-lex.europa.eu/legal-content/EN/TXT/HTML/?uri=CELEX:02011D0273-20111114

Thus, granting users in Syria access to a code hoster located in the EU seems (IANAL) legal. Since paid GitHub instances are sold by the same company, they still restrict access from Syria.

© 2020 GitHub, Inc.

Source: https://github.com/enterprise

Instead of GitHub, fulfilling this user story would require using a code hoster based in a EU member state without additional export restrictions prohibiting access from Syria. The Netherlands for example have not decreed any sanctions against Syria on their own:

[Absence of a statement at the relevant page.]

Source: https://www.government.nl/topics/international-peace-and-security/compliance-with-international-sanctions/sanctions-against-syria

In the Netherlands, there is GitLabHost, which is a hosted GitLab service:

Fully managed GitLab hosting

Source: https://gitlabhost.com/

GitLab endorses GitLabHost by naming them in their documentation:

Some 3rd party vendors also offer a single-tenant managed offering, such as GitLabHost.

Source: https://about.gitlab.com/gitlab-hosted/#as-an-existing-githost-user-what-options-do-i-have

GitLab is open source and can therefore be hosted by anybody:

GitLab [...] the leading collaboration tool for DevOps

Source: https://about.gitlab.com/

Workaround:

A user based Syria who wants to work downstream to this repository in private could use GitLabHost on their own like this:

[                     GitHub.com                        ]
user@github/cwa-public  <-- mirror-fork -- cwa@github/cwa

                  ↓                  mirror using a personal access token of GitHub's API

user@gitlabhost.com/cwa-documentation-public --- fork + merge request --> user/cwa-documentation-private
[                                          GitLabHost.com                                               ]

Note that GitLab supports this, but it does not actually work currently, due to a bug. See:

https://gitlab.com/gitlab-org/gitlab/-/issues/217571

However, such a workaround requires the user to switch between code hosting platforms.

Fix:

Please consider using a platform which supports this user story on its own.
@Bengt Bengt changed the title Choose a Platform that Support Private Downstream Forks in Syria Choose a Platform that Supports Private Downstream Forks in Syria May 13, 2020
@TomTeeJay
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basically touching my closed issues:

#9
#11

It seems to me that SAP and Telekom are already excluding and discriminating users in the design process.

@s-martin
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The scope of this app is for Germany.
While it would be desirable that this app could be used and forked everywhere I don't think that should be the biggest concern right now.

@niklas2810
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niklas2810 commented May 13, 2020 •
edited

I'm not quite sure how relevant this user story is to the repository (and project authors). This project is obviously primarily focused on Germany and therefore the German developer community, even though they explicitly want to address "interested parties in the global developer community who do not speak German" (as the authors wrote in the README). However, I don't think that the potential exclusion of Syrian users, even though it's unfair, would justify a complete switch of the version control platform.

Please also consider that GitHub is an industry standard and therefore already widely adopted, so most interested users don't have to switch from their preferred platform.

@TomTeeJay
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TomTeeJay commented May 13, 2020 •
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Please keep in mind that GitHub is an industry standard and therefore already widely adopted,

Eh... not really. Git is a standard not GitHub. In addition to this issue Chinese Developers are blocked as well by GitHub and who knows how the US administration will react to EU tarriffs or german cars in the future?

German Telekom using Huawei Technology, isn't it?

@Ablesius
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@TomTeeJay @Bengt you could always contribute via patches sent via mail, i. e. by git-send-email. You're not forced to use Github. Git is decentral by design.

@Ryuno-Ki
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The mail address was mentioned in #9 (comment)

@TomTeeJay
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TomTeeJay commented May 13, 2020 •
edited

The scope of this app is for Germany.

May I then ask, why the primary language is English when the scope of the App is Germany?

May I quote the GNU four essential freedoms?

The freedom to run the program as you wish, for any purpose (freedom 0).
The freedom to study how the program works, and change it so it does your computing as you wish (freedom 1). Access to the source code is a precondition for this.
The freedom to redistribute copies so you can help others (freedom 2).
The freedom to distribute copies of your modified versions to others (freedom 3).
By doing this you can give the whole community a chance to benefit from your changes. Access to the source code is a precondition for this.

@ceedee666
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I think this is obvious. Not only German developers will be working on the app.

@Bengt
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Bengt commented May 13, 2020

[...] I don't think [this app could be used and forked everywhere] should be the biggest concern right now.

@s-martin This limitation of GitHub discriminates against people based on their current country of residence. GitHub is an US-based company and thus abiding US law. But I would expect SAP and T-Systems as a contractor of the German state to be bound by German and European law. Specifically, the German constitution (Grundgesetz) prohibits discriminating against people for various reasons. The EU' regulation does not legitimate denying access to Syrian residents, either. How is this not a concern?

@s-martin
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See https://github.com/corona-warn-app/cwa-documentation/blob/master/README.md#working-language

@Bengt
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Bengt commented May 13, 2020 •
edited

[...] I don't think that the potential exclusion of Syrian users, [...] would justify a complete switch of the version control platform.

@niklas2810 As far as I can see, this is the only repository and it is not even integrated in GitHub Actions, yet. Does not seem to bad for me, given that GitLab can even import virtually anything from Github.

@niklas2810
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niklas2810 commented May 13, 2020 •
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As far as I can see, this is the only repository and it is not even integrated in GitHub Actions, yet. Does not seem to bad for me, given that GitLab can even import virtually anything from Github.

This repo already exists and even though they don't make use of GitHub-only features yet, switching the repository would cause a lot of confusion (e.g. this repository was already mentioned in various articles. Adding a permalink to GitLab would be a suboptimal solution, staying here simply makes more sense than taking this extra mile).

Syrian developers can participate via mail, as @Ablesius and @Ryuno-Ki already pointed out (if there actually are developers from the Syrian community who want to work on the code as this project's focus is Germany).

@tkowark
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tkowark commented May 13, 2020

Thanks @Bengt for raising these concerns. Since the the project is open-source under the Apache 2.0, everybody can just setup a repository mirroring to GitLab or any other Git server by themselves.

Also, as already mentioned in #9 (comment), it is possible to contribute without creating a Github Account just via email.

@tkowark tkowark closed this as completed May 13, 2020
@corona-warn-app corona-warn-app locked as resolved and limited conversation to collaborators May 13, 2020
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8 participants
@Bengt @tkowark @ceedee666 @Ryuno-Ki @s-martin @Ablesius @TomTeeJay @niklas2810