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Comment by dijit | Hacker News Reader

I know this is just nitpicking, but US Sanctions apply to sanctioned state nationals; regardless of location.

No they don't! The sanction is against the country, not nationals. So if you are a developer from the U.S. with U.S. nationality and move to Cuba the sanctions would also apply to you.

Actually there is a very good wikipedia page "United States sanctions against Iran" https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_sanctions_agains... about this, if you want more info.

I don't mean to be flippant, but it will sound this way.

I trust Oracles lawyers to know the law better than a wikipedia page.

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/export/export-regulations-...

Oracles lawyers and Githubs lawyers then disagree cause Githubs CEO stated the same thing as the GP: They block people based on location, not on nationality. If you are banned but not in one of the banned locations you can fill out a form to get unblocked:

https://twitter.com/natfriedman/status/1155311123467399168

Of course this is one of the intended consequences of any capricious military-state outrage. Uncertainty allows them to oppress more people while simultaneously claiming that wasn't their intent. The firms who are applying a broad brush are doing exactly what the armaments lobbyists desire.

IANAL but it seems to me like Oracle's lawyers have taken a stronger position than required by law.

Nationality of individuals is primarily relevant for deemed-export under ITAR/EAR; not the OFAC sanctions on Iran.

Are you sure ?

Quoted from GitHub CEO Nat Friedman on Twitter:

> The restrictions are based on place of residence and location, not on nationality or heritage. If someone was flagged in error, they can fill out a form to get the restrictions lifted on their account within hours.

> Any company or national of Cuba, Iran, North Korea, Sudan, Syria, and the Crimea region. Export licensing of commodities or services intended for these countries is presumed denied;

Wording like this appears on the treasury documents, Google cloud and Oracles official documentation on sanctions.

I'll just link the Oracle one because ironically the one that google uses is really difficult to find:

http://www.oracle.com/us/products/export/export-regulations-...

By that wording, who is a national of the Crimea region? Did they mean residents?

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