Ripple by being a fully premined and centralized not open source system when it started laid the groundwork for this.
Open source projects /alt coins that have no pre mined coins could possiblly 'create' situations where other people could transmit /earn /buy/ sell/ coins however since those transactions would be done by one or more third parties (Exchanges ect...) it is quite a different matter.
Let's use bitcoin as an example, if a government somewhere wants to 'fine' bitcoin I don't believe it would be possible.
I find it unlikely they would be able to fine 'Satoshi' or even the core developers who maintain the code now.
They could make it illegal and go after people who live within that nation for using bitcoin perhaps.....
Anyone who has been around children knows if you put something in a box and tell the kids, ok don't look in that box when I leave the room.....
What is the first thing that many kids will do ?
If bitcoin is made illegal it is likely to drive up demand anyplace this happens.
Look at history. Look up the person who started Mt. Gox + the person who started Ripple.
If that is not enough to show you the true integrity of ripple I wish you well.
Personally I would prefer to see ripple just die off as a scam vs. have the G go after them.
I hope I am wrong but some people may consider this action by the government implied 'credability' of ripple.
i.e. Ripple is a large scale scam
100% so they may have factored into their business plan a certain percentage of the profits they plan to bilk from people as necessary to pay fines ect....... The same way multi national corporations in both financial and other sectors currently practice 'unlawful' or 'unfair' business practices but don't care about the fine. When a fine is pennies on the dollar it becomes part of the cost of the business.
Finally do not think for a second that the people running such a large scale multi million dollar scam do not have shills in the bitcoin community and on social media sites as well as people in media on the payroll ect.... pretending to be favorable to bitcoin who will when the timing is right 'flip' and say '''ohhh this is actually ok/better'''
Personally I will rest easier when I see Ripple in the same state that Tenebrix is in here
https://github.com/Lolcust/Tenebrix