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

Thu Jan 30 15:43:40 UTC 2014

Andre - Just to clarify, yes 'non-profit' and 'not-for-profit' are the 
same. But Coursera is *not* 'non-profit' i.e. it makes profit.

Pat - interesting point about the live-session mechanisms banned by 
certain countries. Do you have any useful links exploring this in 
relation to MOOCs?

Marieke

On 30/01/2014 13:47, Pat Lockley wrote:
> The MOOC I worked on exists outside of Coursera 
> (lawsfolio.londoninternational.ac.uk/eclmooc 
> <http://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 
> <mailto: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 <mailto:ryunoki at openmailbox.org>> wrote:
>>
>>         -----BEGIN PGP SIGNED MESSAGE-----
>>         Hash: SHA1
>>
>>         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
>>         -----BEGIN PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>>         Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
>>
>>         iEYEARECAAYFAlLqUR4ACgkQjQTt6JEMiWmo3wCgiSvcH2ZdDGhNh+uZuh4ZteOA
>>         FYkAn29eHHr9uMSVS2sEHwgr7pE8uVAt
>>         =xt/X
>>         -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>
>     -- 
>
>     Marieke Guy
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