Ola Carlos, I am very familiar with Govt. instituted restrictions, and yes, people always find ways to get around it. I cannot speak for the Cuban Gov. nor for the US Gov. as to what they decide to do and when. What was/is irksome about Softlayer's decision is the following:- 1) Unilateral implementation of a restricted policy without any notification. 2) The broad stroke implementation of a Gov Policy that does not apply to the communication service they applied the policy to. i.e. As much as we all dislike Dictatorial Behavior, and we fully recognize Softlayer is a Private Entity, who can exercise it's right to act Dictatorially, Such behavior in the overall community (Internet) is frowned upon and (as it should) have a long term negative affect to business. Saludos. Faisal Imtiaz Snappy Internet & Telecom 7266 SW 48 Street Miami, FL 33155 Tel: 305 663 5518 x 232 Help-desk: (305)663-5518 Option 2 or Email: Support@Snappytelecom.net
From: "Carlos A. Carnero Delgado" <carloscarnero@gmail.com> To: "Faisal Imtiaz" <faisal@snappytelecom.net> Cc: "nanog list" <nanog@nanog.org> Sent: Friday, February 19, 2016 6:08:42 PM Subject: Re: Softlayer / Blocking Cuba IP's ?
Hi,
(disclaimer: I'm Cuban national, living in Cuba, and a long time lurker in this great list)
2016-02-19 15:27 GMT-05:00 Faisal Imtiaz < faisal@snappytelecom.net > :
Considering the fact that such a block was just put in place about a week ago ? Last time I checked, blocking any part of the world is not part of any legal requirements on any Global Service Provider ? other than a 'company policy' ?
Being denied access to services, as a Cuban national, is something that we've all experienced here and we (sadly) have come to accept it as a fact of life. Sometimes we resort to proxies/VPNs in order to conceal our origin -- and by a similar token, sometimes, our destination ;).
However, there are a couple of things that have made me wondering how arbitrary decisions can be. I think sometimes it just boils down to specific provider policies that try to (maybe rightfully) cover their bottoms in the light of the law. For instance, I can't hide the fact that I have access to Gmail; but at the same time there are many Google properties and services than I can't. There are many companies, global companies, that I can't access, and others are open to us which are, paradoxically, completely based on the US and under US law (won't name them publicly to avoid potential damage).
Any way, I'm going back to lurk mode. However, feel free to ask anything, on- of offlist. And I thank you all for this wonderful resource. Carlos.