Even though the restrictions are lifted, the damage is already done. Now everyone knows that IEEE has to comply with US gov's demands, which can be made without any court ruling or due process.
What do you mean "now"? IEEE has a history of this:
>One of the world’s largest scientific societies has barred researchers in certain countries from publishing in its journals and receiving member benefits. The Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers says it has taken these steps against scientists in Iran and four other so-called rogue nations subject to U.S. trade sanctions to ensure that IEEE staff stay on the right side of U.S. law.
>But other scientific organizations do not discriminate against scientists from these countries, leaving some observers to accuse IEEE of playing the rogue.
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/9087784_IEEE_Under_...
Also:
In February 2004, during the final year of Khatami's presidency, the U.S. Department of the Treasury ruled against editing or publishing scientific manuscripts from Iran, and stated that U.S. scientists collaborating with Iranians could be prosecuted. In response, the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers (IEEE) temporarily stopped editing manuscripts from Iranian researchers and took steps to clarify the OFAC guidelines concerning its publishing and editing activities. In April 2004 IEEE received a response from OFAC which fully resolved that no licenses were needed for publishing works from Iran and that the entire IEEE publication process including peer review and editing was exempt from restrictions. On the other hand, the American Institute of Physics (AIP), the American Physical Society and the American Association for the Advancement of Science, which publishes Science, refused to comply, saying that the prohibition on publishing goes against freedom of speech.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_sanctions_agains...
If anything IEEE was too quick to move, but I am not their legal team.
This is with reference to illegal orders. As for unjust orders that happen to be allowed by the applicable laws, that's not a situation the courts can remedy.
What you are saying is that, because of the pervasiveness of US tech, all organizations having US a companies as members are at risk.
Time for the world to route around this single point of failure.
Firstly, which law would they have been breaking if they had not blocked Huawei, given the subsequent guidance they have been given?
And secondly, which universe do you inhabit? Companies and organisations break the law and get away with it in this one with monotonous regularity.
Well, they seem to have reversed the restrictions; but it's not crazy for their lawyers to hold things up a bit while they figure out if what they're doing could land them in trouble. As an IEEE member, I kinda expect them to be a bit careful about breaking the law.
> And secondly, which universe do you inhabit? Companies and organisations break the law and get away with it in this one with monotonous regularity.
So you're saying that... corporations, including non-profits, should knowingly risk violating the law because... sometimes corporations get away with small fines for doing similar? I don't get it. I also don't get why you're being so hostile.
Justifying this kind of unjust law is like saying Google should comply with Chinese censorship request to suppress dissent opinions in Sweden.
I think the news is that it doesn't, but also that some lawyer thought it might.
As an outsider, have they? Have they actually been convicted of anything relevant in US courts?
It’d be like saying that the Swiss government has sway over the International Criminal Court. Seems strange.