On 07/05/2010 02:32 PM, Jonathan Dieter wrote:
What is/should be Fedora's policy when it comes to helping people on IRC who are from embargoed countries? I'm asking because a situation just happened in #fedora where someone from Iran asked for help, and someone from the UK refused to help. Obviously that's their prerogative, but if I'm going to help them, I want to know that I'm not flouting some Fedora guideline.
Red Hat does not impose any legal restrictions upon the behavior of non-Red Hat employees on public IRC. All advice delivered by non-Red Hat employees on IRC should be considered "unofficial".
Accordingly, the Fedora Policy is as follows:
* The Fedora IRC channels (on Freenode) is not an official support channel of Red Hat. Any advice you read in those channels is provided by individual community members. You should use it at your OWN RISK. This advice is owned by each individual, and does NOT represent the views of Freenode, Fedora or Red Hat.
* Participants on Fedora IRC should not feel obligated to make any attempt to determine the nationality of participants.
* Red Hat employees must not offer advice or assistance to individuals on IRC who explicitly identify themselves as being from an embargoed nation, or otherwise under US embargo. They can contact Red Hat Legal for more information.
* All non Red Hat employees who are participants on IRC are acting independently, and are in no way acting as agents of Red Hat.
**** My note: The use of the term "unofficial" is completely unconnected to the reliability or accuracy of any advice delivered. It merely means that from a legal standpoint, these individuals providing advice are not doing so on behalf of Red Hat.
~spot