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by 15155 4 hours ago
Why do they need to "force Cloudflare" to do anything?

Why wouldn't they just tell Hugging Face that they need to abide export restrictions directly - they're an American company?

Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity?
1 comments
bilekas 2 hours ago
Because the models don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face. You can create a Model Card repository containing your README and from there you include instructions or a custom script in your repository that allows authenticated users to download the model.

> Doesn't sound dystopian enough without a second compelled entity?

This is the second snarky question you've made today, the other in relation to the export limit.

> Is this just upsetting because it's a product you want to enjoy?

Both are assumptions you are making and don't provide much in the way of constructive conversation, if I'm wrong about something it's alright to just point it out.

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15155 1 hour ago
> don't necessarily need to be hosted on hugging face.

Export restrictions don't split generally hairs on technicalities like "hosting" - the "but magnet links aren't actually torrents!" defense doesn't fly when $1M fines and federal felonies are at stake. All distribution or "causing" distribution to restricted entities is prohibited.

> This is the second snarky question you've made today

It's not snark: why would Cloudflare somehow be legally or technically relevant in the context of two American companies distributing export-restricted materials? HN seems to love the "Cloudflare controls the internet!" "NSA bad!" trope.

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bilekas 1 hour ago
> Export restrictions don't split generally hairs on technicalities like "hosting" - the "but magnet links aren't actually torrents!" defense doesn't fly when $1M fines and federal felonies are at stake. All distribution or "causing" distribution to restricted entities is prohibited.

So why would open models that are not in the US be restricted ? The government would need to subpoena each model that was in the US individually, why would they do that when they could simply pull clout over CloudFlare, which we have seen governments do around the world. Either CloudFlare comply, or they're added a block list.

> https://cybersecurityadvisors.network/2025/04/15/la-liga-blo...

This is not a new thing, anyway this discussion has become too argumentative for an off the cuff comment about government over-reach.

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