I was just freaking making a point about this very issue over at my friend Brian’s blog.
This is just another stupid, stupid move to regulate the flow of ideas by making some sort of hackneyed political statement.
The IEEE (Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers) recently imposed a ban on the residents of Cuba, Iran, Libya and Sudan from publishing and contributing to any IEEE publication or standard. The IEEE defends their position by claiming that people from these countries don’t have any rights to publish anything based on the OFAC regulations that have been set out while other International Academic and Scientific Organizations such as the American Geophysical Union, the American Society of Mechanical Engineers and Science Magazine do not echo such views or impose such regulations.
It’s bad enough that our government is acting in a foolish manner by trying to economically and scientifically isolate these countries, it is worse when “objective” scientists and engineers engage in the same practice.
Courtesy of Metafilter.com
