[Open-education] ZDNet: Coursera regrets: Students from Cuba, Iran, Sudan banned due to U.S. law

Thu Jan 30 13:47:49 UTC 2014

The MOOC I worked on exists outside of Coursera (
lawsfolio.londoninternational.ac.uk/eclmooc). The Coursera contract doesn't
limit what a partner University does with the content

However, the blockade isn't a one way process. Lots of MOOCs use google
hangouts, and Youtube (which we did but we are moving away from) which is
banned in Syria, Afghanistan, Pakistan and Bangladesh. For that reason we
opted to use a paid for service instead for our live sessions (which isn't
banned anywhere).

On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 1:29 PM, Marieke Guy <marieke.guy at okfn.org> wrote:

>  Hi Andre,
>
> I noticed the Coursera post earlier, it's a very sad situation.
>
> My understanding is that the issue Coursera has is that it is technically
> a commercial company.
>
> The ZDNet article says:
>
> "As the organization is not non-profit and does make money from students
> pursuing particular certificates or exams, under U.S. law, Coursera's
> courses are considered services and are therefore subject to restrictions
> as they are considered exports. As of this week, students in Cuba, Iran or
> Sudan cannot log in to course pages or create new accounts, but can still
> browse the course catalog and reach Coursera's blog as they are "considered
> public information rather than services and therefore not subject to
> restrictions."
>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation on the other hand is a not-for-profit
> organisation with a central base in the UK. I'm assuming we are not
> governed by US laws.
>
> I would assume (though I may be wrong) that if the Universities
> moved/copied their MOOCs from Coursera back on to their own sites then
> students in Cuba, Iran and Sudan could access them freely. Or they could be
> hosted elsewhere as Pat suggests. Anyone know any more about this that
> could comment?
>
> Marieke
>
>
> On 30/01/2014 13:28, Pat Lockley wrote:
>
> Only if the OER was hosted solely in the USA - and then logically some one
> could download it (via CC license) and upload elsewhere.
>
>
>
>  On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 1:18 PM, Andre Jaenisch <ryunoki at openmailbox.org>wrote:
>
>> -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
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>> Hello,
>>
>> you've probably already read it: Coursera, a MOOC provider placed in
>> U.S. has blocked its services for students from Cuba, Iran and Sudan:
>>
>>
>> http://www.zdnet.com/coursera-regrets-students-from-cuba-iran-sudan-banned-due-to-u-s-law-7000025728/
>>
>> The reason: U.S. export law.
>>
>> This raises the question in me, wether this could happen to OER as well.
>> Which law is applied to, say, the handbook?
>> After all, people from several nations worked on it.
>>
>> Regards
>>
>>
>> Andre
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>
>
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> --
>
> Marieke Guy
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