

Why aren't Cubans, Quebecois, Saudis, Syrians allowed in Google Code Jam - surine
http://code.google.com/codejam/faq.html#registration

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DanBC
Quebec has weird laws about competitions.

(<http://www.advertisinglawyer.ca/advertising.htm>)

([http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/08/why-many-
contes...](http://business.financialpost.com/2011/09/08/why-many-contests-
exclude-quebec-residents/))

~~~
xradionut
I was humorously assuming it was because almost all programming languages have
key words in English.

The Imp of the Recursive in my head was imagining an alternate programming
culture like a Quebec version of steam-punk.

~~~
Farox
You're not too far off. Companies have to, with growing size, do more and more
stuff in french. At large companies that aren't exempt you must have a french
keyboard for example and code comments have to be in french.

~~~
JiPi
I live in Quebec and worked in big organizations, even public ones like the
Governement and a city, and never ever heard that. Source please?

~~~
awaythrowme
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francization#Francization_in_Qu...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Francization#Francization_in_Quebec)

Any large company should have a policy document which states the absurd rules
including installation of French software versions and use of French
keyboards, hiring and e-mail policies. I believe the policies only apply to
businesses with over 50 employees so you would not have encountered them in
the public sector.

------
xr09
OK I'm a Cuban programmer and can tell you this measure sucks big time, if the
blocked government wants anything from Google Code, Sourceforge or any other
"restricted" place they have mirrors, nice people on other unblocked countries
willing to help and as last resource a tor proxy will do. So this measure only
asserts read-only access, nothing else. Actually US goverment looks stupid
when do things like this, you can't stop software to spread all over the world
it's nonsense.

Anyway I prefer Github, Google is not the cool company they used to be, now
most of their products look like stripped-down copies of others.

#ifndef HUMOR

#def HUMOR

I think we on the "Evil Axis" should have our own code hosting platform.

Possible URL: <http://evilhub.com>

I'm thinking in projects like:

ak47-assembler

missile-launcher

dropbomb

spy-detector

nuclear-cad

whitehouse-boom-boom

familyguy-downloader (we love stewie too)

#endif

~~~
JPKab
Dude, you made my day. I'm pretty fascinated by my Gringo stereotypes of Cuba
colliding with a programmer on HN.

I'm picturing a guy with a laptop, palm trees in the background, lots of
antique cars driving on the street behind him, a brass band somewhere nearby,
a pork sandwich on a plate. Please, please be wearing a Che/Fidel hat.

In all seriousness, I'm curious about the internet situation there. How's the
bandwidth these days?

~~~
xr09
You missed the "Havana Club" rum bottle and a mulatta. ;)

Well, the internet access is a delicate topic, lots of schools have it,
government offices, but not much civilians yet, they say is coming soon, but
the problem is they fear technology (old people mostly), they see it as a
possible way of US Gov. and Miami oppositors to take control of our minds or
whatever.

Old people have fears, they have their reasons, young people have ideas, we
want to push forward. And is like that, some get tired of waiting for a change
and go away to a more tech-savvy place, but is not an option for everyone.

The bandwith is better than 5 years ago and improving, it's not wideband but
we can live with that.

Anyway, it sucks to have studied IT Engineering (so far, thousands of us
[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Information_Scien...](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/University_of_Information_Science))
to end up setting up printers and not creating awesome stuff, people in charge
have no faith in knowledge products.

I realized a big truth reading Peopleware: The "Spanish Theory of Value" is
killing us.

------
caissy
As a fellow french speaking Quebecer, this is because of the "Régie des
alcools, des courses et des jeux", the main office regulating alcool, races
and gambling.

In our legislation, if you are making a contest with the intent of giving away
more than CAD$2000, you must get a licence from them[1]. Many companies just
don't want to get their head in this.

The main reasoning behind this is to keep track of the contests and make sure
that no one is trying to scam you.

[1] [http://www.canlii.org/en/qc/laws/regu/rrq-
c-l-6-r-6/latest/r...](http://www.canlii.org/en/qc/laws/regu/rrq-
c-l-6-r-6/latest/rrq-c-l-6-r-6.html)

~~~
JiPi
Exactly! As simple as that! This is why we are always (almost) excluded from
any contests :)

~~~
psychopaf
But we smoke Cuban cigars - legally ;)

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PeterisP
USA corporations, including Google, have restrictions on paying money to
residents of certain countries such as Cuba and Syria. Tough luck.

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D9u
_or anywhere that the contest is prohibited by law._

That's probably why.

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mryan
> The Contest is void in Cuba, Quebec, Saudi Arabia and Syria > and where
> prohibited by law. Individuals and entities > restricted by applicable
> export controls and sanctions > programs are ineligible to participate in
> the Contest

Some could perhaps be explained by export restrictions on crypto code,
although I would expect to see some other countries (Iran) banned if that were
the case.

Quebec has rather stringent data privacy laws - perhaps these are not
compatible with Google's personal data storage policy.

~~~
p_l
Quebec's case is rather their laws regarding contests, lotteries etc.

Basically any contest from outside Canada won't give a damn about working all
of those rules in (if it's even possible at all), so they are simply banned
from essentially all international competitions of this kind :)

~~~
TheCoreh
Since the competition is being held by a company outside of Quebec, do they
need to abide to these laws at all?

~~~
kintamanimatt
Probably, because Google has a Canadian subsidiary with offices in Montreal;
they're subject to local law. If this wasn't the case they'd gladly not
exclude Quebecois.

~~~
pc86
Why are we just making stuff up?

This is not true. Contests must abide by any local laws or regulations in any
jurisdiction they're run in. If you don't run the contest in Quebec (e.g. if
you disallow Quebecois entrants) then and only then are you exempt from their
laws.

~~~
kintamanimatt
We're not making stuff up. If I run a competition and someone from Belgium
enters (and wins) but I have no presence in Belgium, I'm in no way subject to
Belgian laws. How can I possibly be? Google doesn't have offices in Venezuela,
Colombia, Bolivia, Chile, or South Africa. I highly doubt they're complying
with local laws regarding competitions in these jurisdictions!

Google are subject to Quebec's laws because they have offices there and a
Canadian subsidiary. If these things weren't, they wouldn't have to abide by
such laws. Even if Quebec said they had to, they wouldn't have jurisdiction.

~~~
ubernostrum
I understand that this is something people don't get, but: yes, if you are
doing something that can be construed as "doing business" in a country, then
you get to be subject to that country's laws regardless of whether you have
offices there or have ever set foot on that country's territory.

This is not particularly new. What is new is the general belief I've seen in
many people that "but I did it on the internet!" is a magical answer.

~~~
kintamanimatt
Such laws would be really, really difficult, if not impossible to enforce.

I seem to remember there are certain laws the British government thinks
applies to foreign companies that have no ties to the UK but otherwise do
business with British residents, but in the same breath says they have no way
to enforce them.

~~~
ubernostrum
Enforcement's not so terribly hard. Look at the US campaign against online
gambling; when they want to crack down, they can cut off the flow of money to
customers in the US.

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skrebbel
Those crazy Quebecois are going to use the knowledge learned to nuke Toronto!

~~~
jherdman
Ubisoft Montreal already has ;) [http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/the-
nostalgic-insanity...](http://ca.ign.com/articles/2013/04/11/the-nostalgic-
insanity-of-far-cry-3-blood-dragon)

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ronnyf
Another example of Quebec being a totalitarian regime. A bit different from
some others in this world though. A place where one can increase funding for a
language Gestapo, who fines restaurant owners who don't properly translate
pasta in their menu, while cutting social spending. All for the benefit of the
residents. Go Quebec!

~~~
yen223
Better post the French translation of this rant soon, or suffer the
consequences :)

~~~
officemonkey
I'll do it for him:

"Viva Quebec!"

~~~
JiPi
This is not french ;)

