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

[Pat Lockley]

Nothing MOOC specific, just from our experience of distance learning and
MOOC running. I guess I am slightly more concerned about the truthfulness
of being open than some other MOOC people and so wouldn't want to knowingly
offer a service which some people couldn't access.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Censorship_of_YouTube

So then we tried ustream, which was barred in a lot of the Middle East
(used a lot during protests).

We ended up with livestream.com which is pretty good at what it does.


On Thu, Jan 30, 2014 at 3:43 PM, Marieke Guy <marieke.guy at okfn.org> wrote:

>  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). 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-----
>>> 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-----
>>> Version: GnuPG v2.0.22 (GNU/Linux)
>>> Comment: Using GnuPG with Thunderbird - http://www.enigmail.net/
>>>
>>> iEYEARECAAYFAlLqUR4ACgkQjQTt6JEMiWmo3wCgiSvcH2ZdDGhNh+uZuh4ZteOA
>>> FYkAn29eHHr9uMSVS2sEHwgr7pE8uVAt
>>> =xt/X
>>> -----END PGP SIGNATURE-----
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>>
>>
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>>   --
>>
>> Marieke Guy
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> Marieke Guy
> LinkedUp <http://linkedup-project.eu/> Project Community Coordinator |
> skype: mariekeguy | tel: 44 (0) 1285 885681 | @mariekeguy<http://twitter.com/mariekeguy>
> The Open Knowledge Foundation <http://okfn.org/>
> *Empowering through Open Knowledge*
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