91–100 of 234 posts
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Here in Norway there are special provisions for tax fraud and money laundering. It doesn't apply to "normal" crime only those. But it does apply for everyone not just civil servants.
So if for example I know that my uncle is not paying all his taxes I'm a criminal too unless I report him? Or is it only for bigger frauds?
May be I missed it but can someone tell me what was the crime the company was committing ? Almost any company will have defensive strategies such as stalling LEOs and Warrants in whatever way they can. A lot of this is not really "crime" as in kidnapping people or shooting people dead in some alley. Is having shell companies a crime ? I know a ton of bay area "startups" than engage in these sort of tricks to maximize…
Am I the only one getting depressed with all the excuses and rationalizations in this thread? It's the same with "adtech" and the like... "Hey, I'm not killing anyone, what's the harm?" Technology has the potential to raise humanity above its current conditions and limitations. But we can't have it, because we are selfish and short-sighted monkeys. Take a big dump on all the ideals if this delivers the paycheck. "Bus…
--
[0] - http://jacek.zlydach.pl/blog/2019-07-31-ads-as-cancer.html.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
So if for example I know that my uncle is not paying all his taxes I'm a criminal too unless I report him? Or is it only for bigger frauds?
Yes if the government can prove that you knew about it without telling, you can be charged with it.
> Yes if the government can prove that you knew about it without telling, you can be charged with it.
That's not generally true. In the vast majority of cases, simply knowing about a crime and not reporting it is not a crime in itself. You only become liable when you aid-and-abet or join in a conspiracy to commit the crime.
However, it depends very much on the specific crime. Tax evasion may be entirely different than say selling drugs.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I’m not saying what OP did is right, however, is creating tools that could possibly bypass a governments’ laws always an ethical issue? Would the creators of VPN software need to consider ethics since it could break government censorship? Or if the government requested I create a backdoor for them, would that also be an ethical issue?
Creating a tool that can theoretically be abused to break laws? No. Selling a tool with a law-breaking feature, in full knowledge that its main selling point is that feature, that your customers are buying it specifically to break the law? That ought to raise some ethical concerns. You can say that it depends on the particular laws being broken - but here we're not talking about ethical minutiae of censorship or surv…
Giving ‘The Government’ less money is seen by some as a moral duty.
Governments do a whole lot of giving other people other people’s money. I’m sure there’s people who would argue this can be problematic.
May be I missed it but can someone tell me what was the crime the company was committing ? Almost any company will have defensive strategies such as stalling LEOs and Warrants in whatever way they can. A lot of this is not really "crime" as in kidnapping people or shooting people dead in some alley. Is having shell companies a crime ? I know a ton of bay area "startups" than engage in these sort of tricks to maximize…
Yes, I think we all know some. And it's true, skirting the law and abusing the commons gives one a competitive advantage. But that doesn't make it OK. The market isn't the arbiter of ethics. It only means that not enough is done to stop that behavior, that the border between legal and illegal is too low, or too misaligned with what's actually happening. That people still underestimate the extent to which money trumps ethics in everyday decision making.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Did it bother you that you were facilitating crimes?
Tax evasion is a fairly soft crime, it’s shouldn’t be surprising there are people okay with facilitating it. It’s not difficult to find people who believe, rightly or wrongly, the tax system is unfair.
On the other hand, black and grey market activity are also I think quite an important counter-balance to the possibility of totalitarian government. It creates "gaps" let's say for more diverse human and economic outcomes. Which is also potentially good.
I think it's one of those indefensible things that we should tolerate a tiny amount of. Kind of like a vaccine in the body.
Earlier quoted context omitted.
Which law is being broken? Also (in my personal opinion) criminality should be obvious to a general person, some kind of complex technical illegality may not make the whole company a "criminal organization". A lot of reputed companies like Google get fined on regular basis world over does not make them criminal organizations. A lot of companies would also willingly break the law depending on the risk tolerance they h…
> criminality should be obvious to a general person This standard would work for about 5 minutes before a criminal complicated things enough that their crime was no longer obviously wrong.
May be I missed it but can someone tell me what was the crime the company was committing ? Almost any company will have defensive strategies such as stalling LEOs and Warrants in whatever way they can. A lot of this is not really "crime" as in kidnapping people or shooting people dead in some alley. Is having shell companies a crime ? I know a ton of bay area "startups" than engage in these sort of tricks to maximize…
Am I the only one getting depressed with all the excuses and rationalizations in this thread? It's the same with "adtech" and the like... "Hey, I'm not killing anyone, what's the harm?" Technology has the potential to raise humanity above its current conditions and limitations. But we can't have it, because we are selfish and short-sighted monkeys. Take a big dump on all the ideals if this delivers the paycheck. "Bus…
Earlier quoted context omitted.
I assume it is common to report the company to the authorities when a request like that comes in? Where I live at least not reporting activity like that could result in a few years in jail.
In Poland you're only required to report a crime if you're a civil servant and the crime is related to your job.