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Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

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81–90 of 98 posts

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#82

Well, in the video of the hearing you posted earlier hiQ's counsel said an IP block is not akin to a password. The court added that IP addresses do not identify people. As such IP blocks ban computers not people. There was also suggestion that the "access control" only relates to the manner of access; people can easily change IP addresses. The court seemed to agree with that argument. hiQ's counsel argued that a "gat…

With NAT and the rise of WFH, I wouldn't be surprised if a lot more legitimate users were under VPN without even knowing it.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#83
post #65
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and as someone who grew up on Something Awful and 4chan I'm not familiar with the concept of hyperbole and sarcasm, but keep in mind that a lot of people on HN speak English as a second language, or just have more trouble picking up on sarcasm in general, and as such it might come off as a legitimate accusation. I'm not trying to be the tone police, I don't really care, I was just explaining why you might have…

English is a third language for me, I would expect that regardless of language everyone can understand the concepts of sarcasm and irony if they're willing to spend any time thinking about what they are reading. There's literally zero context to suggest that I might be serious in accusing another poster of being a pedophile, even if they were it wouldn't make sense for me to randomly drop that.

> I would expect that regardless of language everyone can understand the concepts of sarcasm and irony

And I feel it's fair for someone like you on HN to accept fair criticism of their comments.

> English is a third language for me

I would expect you'd still understand the point being made and understand it's not about you, but about many others, and just because you understand sarcasm or irony, others might not who aren't as well skilled in English.

> There's literally zero context to suggest that I might be serious in accusing another poster of being a pedophile

Except for the fact that it's a serious accusation that one does not make lightly, and so it's fair to assume no one would simply drop that in civil conversation.

Basically, take the lessons and learn from it and stop arguing.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#84
post #34

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I really wish that every legal professional and judicial administrator had some rudimentary computer science knowledge. Having friends whom are lawyers, I can tell you that most of them don't have any meaningful understanding of technology becauae they spend so many years of their career heads down on what is effecctively paperwork. They know enough to realize how bass ackwards their industry is when it comes to tech…

Hmm. You could also argue that not having understanding of the technology is a good thing. For instance, the judge can remove themselves from the details and look at it on a higher level. It’s the job of the attorneys to make the case for or against using subject matter experts etc.

You could argue that. However, it means that people can basically lie to the judges, and the judges don't have the background to call them out on it.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#85
post #7

It's not being talked about because there's no evidence of "new CFAA interpretation" until the court says something like that. It's very common for parties to try and argue all kinds of extreme interpretations of law that might favor their case, with the expectation that it most likely will be refused but hey, it's worth to try; but they are not newsworthy until/unless the court actually considers the argument as val…

So only after it’s precedent and harder to undo then does it matter? This is basically saying there’s no point in testing software, ship every line to prod and see what happens. This is exactly the kind of political ennui the system purposely tries to inculcate. Not fine grain mind control, but indifference. Laws dictate acceptable social agency. One might think we’d take what ends up in them at least as seriously as…

Trial courts do not set precedent. The only way precedent will get set is if this arguement is taken up on appeal.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#86
post #65
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and as someone who grew up on Something Awful and 4chan I'm not familiar with the concept of hyperbole and sarcasm, but keep in mind that a lot of people on HN speak English as a second language, or just have more trouble picking up on sarcasm in general, and as such it might come off as a legitimate accusation. I'm not trying to be the tone police, I don't really care, I was just explaining why you might have…

English is a third language for me, I would expect that regardless of language everyone can understand the concepts of sarcasm and irony if they're willing to spend any time thinking about what they are reading. There's literally zero context to suggest that I might be serious in accusing another poster of being a pedophile, even if they were it wouldn't make sense for me to randomly drop that.

Whether or not you're serious, and forgetting the salaciousness of your satire, there's the point about how completely irrelevant it is as an analogy to what is in question

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#88

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So long as you don’t set foot on US soil, or piss off someone enough to get extradited. Being a foreigner is often enough to avoid the punishment, but it’s not enough to be exempt from the laws.

What the hell? You're telling me some foreign national could actually be extradited to the US over VPN IP nonsense? As if this was as bad as drug trafficking? I just checked my country's laws. Looks like international drug trafficking is the only reason allowed for extradition. Good to see the people writing these things have some common sense.

It's worth remembering that Mega's founder, Kim Dotcom, is still fighting off extradition attempts for Copyright infringement from New Zealand.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#89
post #65

Earlier quoted context omitted.

English is a third language for me, I would expect that regardless of language everyone can understand the concepts of sarcasm and irony if they're willing to spend any time thinking about what they are reading. There's literally zero context to suggest that I might be serious in accusing another poster of being a pedophile, even if they were it wouldn't make sense for me to randomly drop that.

I think it's common for non-neurotypical folks to struggle with sarcasm and irony. Even for neurotypicals, it can go over your head because it's hard to tell tone from a text.

Leon Cooperman was quoted today as saying if people don’t follow along with billionaires they’ll deviate into unnatural behavior.

If that guy and anyone who believes the masses kowtowing to politically insulated old men LARPing Alexander the Great is natural, we’re doomed.

This is what we are now; low effort taxonomists, defending syntactic hierarchy when we know there is no center of reality.

Maybe the neuro-typicals are the real problem? The ones who have hierarchical visuals put in front of them their whole lives, who can then only repeat “this is the way”. Seems like a sure fire way to improve the probability taxes won’t go up, which exactly why Cooperman was interviewed; reiterating the hierarchy.

I really want to play Lemmings for some reason.

Borrowing from Greer’s “code the perimeter, not the area” we need a new political perimeter. Humans know the value of technology now. We don’t need old geezers to confirm what we can all see and touch for ourselves.

Re: Using a VPN could become a criminal offence under new CFAA interpretation

#90
post #65
post #64

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sure, and as someone who grew up on Something Awful and 4chan I'm not familiar with the concept of hyperbole and sarcasm, but keep in mind that a lot of people on HN speak English as a second language, or just have more trouble picking up on sarcasm in general, and as such it might come off as a legitimate accusation. I'm not trying to be the tone police, I don't really care, I was just explaining why you might have…

English is a third language for me, I would expect that regardless of language everyone can understand the concepts of sarcasm and irony if they're willing to spend any time thinking about what they are reading. There's literally zero context to suggest that I might be serious in accusing another poster of being a pedophile, even if they were it wouldn't make sense for me to randomly drop that.

There’s little context to say the opposite either, which is really the whole problem.

It may not be so black and white but you didn’t really help readers lean the way you wanted.

The only takeaway for you here is, culture and language aside, the science of it is that to everyone else you are 1 of 7 billion; the internet as a network is not capable of distributing your emotional uniqueness and even then, we each have our own; why import yours?

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