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GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

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Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#31

Post by bhaak »

wesleywt wrote: post #28
chrischattin wrote: post #17

Any constitutional law experts care to comment? If the US government put pressure on Github to remove the code and delete their accounts, it seems like a clear violation of the developer's first amendment rights – "code is speech" being precedent.

How is code speech? To me it is the equivalent to nuts and bolts of a machine.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bernstein_v._United_States

> After four years and one regulatory change, the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals ruled that software source code was speech protected by the First Amendment and that the government's regulations preventing its publication were unconstitutional.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#32

Post by personjerry »

nurettin wrote: post #13
junon wrote: post #7

People on Twitter are either wilfully dumb or simply ignorant. GitHub had to do this. It was required of them by law. Tornado was sanctioned . > These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. This is, unambiguously, di…

I have no sympathy for crypto whatever and I really don't care about who sanctioned whom and for what reason, but... Sanctioned project's contributors must be deleted from the server - where is that written in the list of things Microsoft has to do since you went out of your way calling everyone on the reply train ignorant?

It's written in the definition of the sanction given by the Department of the Treasury [0], i.e. at the level of US federal law, of which Microsoft must follow as a US company.

> Sanctions Implications

> These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person.

[0]: https://home.treasury.gov/news/press-releases/jy0916

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#33

Post by moron4hire »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #29
Barrin92 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to disappoint but money laundering is very much a real, federal offense. (most other jurisdictions have equivalent laws) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Laundering_Control_Act

The point that went right over the head of you and the head of the other authoritarian that he is responding to is that there is no victim, not even a risk of a victim or any other bad "externality" (to use a word I know you people love) to money laundering just as a standalone act. The crime is defined in statute as a matter of convenience for the state because having privacy regarding where money comes from/goes ma…

That's a bit like saying there is nothing inherently wrong with cleaning up a dead body, you don't want to just leave dead bodies to sit around and rot, so therefore "tampering with a crime scene" is a "fake crime".

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#34

Post by prvit »

moron4hire wrote: post #33
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point that went right over the head of you and the head of the other authoritarian that he is responding to is that there is no victim, not even a risk of a victim or any other bad "externality" (to use a word I know you people love) to money laundering just as a standalone act. The crime is defined in statute as a matter of convenience for the state because having privacy regarding where money comes from/goes ma…

That's a bit like saying there is nothing inherently wrong with cleaning up a dead body, you don't want to just leave dead bodies to sit around and rot, so therefore "tampering with a crime scene" is a "fake crime".

It’s a bit absurd to prosecute a murderer for trying to conceal their crime, no?

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#35

Post by ngetchell »

SXX wrote: post #24

This is a good time time for EFF to step in. This is open huge so many terrible ways for abuse. 1. Make some random crypto project. 2. Motivate people contribute to it, see DigitalOcean hacktoberfest. 3. Replace the code with Tornado.Cash source. Everyone's account is banned by Microsoft. Also I wonder what happen if you didnt sent PR yourself, but someone crafted git commit with your email and added it to such repos…

What would be the motivation to pull off that heist?

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#36

Post by drexlspivey »

moron4hire wrote: post #20
prvit wrote: post #16

Earlier quoted context omitted.

“Money laundering” is a fake crime designed to make it easier to prosecute people who may or may not also have committed real crimes.

Yeah, sure, and taxation is theft. Got it.

Yeah, sure, and sending money to protestors means you are a terrorist. Got it.

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#37

Post by Barrin92 »

throwaway0a5e wrote: post #29
Barrin92 wrote: post #25

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Sorry to disappoint but money laundering is very much a real, federal offense. (most other jurisdictions have equivalent laws) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Money_Laundering_Control_Act

The point that went right over the head of you and the head of the other authoritarian that he is responding to is that there is no victim, not even a risk of a victim or any other bad "externality" (to use a word I know you people love) to money laundering just as a standalone act. The crime is defined in statute as a matter of convenience for the state because having privacy regarding where money comes from/goes ma…

>The crime is defined in statute as a matter of convenience for the state because having privacy regarding where money comes from/goes makes it harder for them to prosecute other "real" crimes so they define that privacy as criminal in and of itself.

Of course and that's a very understandable thing. Legibility and transparency are the basis of prosecuting almost any crime. it's why companies are forced to keep records and do accounting, why there's limits on anonimity and so on. That didn't go over my head at all, it's perfectly reasonable. Tools that exist almost exclusively to facilitate criminal activity and render impossible the capacity of the state to detect such activity are 'inherently pretty bad'. Imagine if someone tried to sell a vehicle that's invisible and that would stop border security from doing its job. Pretty unpopular I'd bet.

Are you also surprised that forgery is a crime despite the fact that harm is usually done when that forgery is used? What is this, the "guns don't kill people" of bookkeeping?

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#38

Post by [deleted] »

moron4hire wrote: post #33
throwaway0a5e wrote: post #29

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The point that went right over the head of you and the head of the other authoritarian that he is responding to is that there is no victim, not even a risk of a victim or any other bad "externality" (to use a word I know you people love) to money laundering just as a standalone act. The crime is defined in statute as a matter of convenience for the state because having privacy regarding where money comes from/goes ma…

That's a bit like saying there is nothing inherently wrong with cleaning up a dead body, you don't want to just leave dead bodies to sit around and rot, so therefore "tampering with a crime scene" is a "fake crime".

[deleted]

Re: GitHub deleted accounts of people who contributed to Tornado Cash repos

#40

Post by subjectsigma »

junon wrote: post #7

People on Twitter are either wilfully dumb or simply ignorant. GitHub had to do this. It was required of them by law. Tornado was sanctioned . > These prohibitions include the making of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services by, to, or for the benefit of any blocked person and the receipt of any contribution or provision of funds, goods, or services from any such person. This is, unambiguously, di…

The amount of people replying "Code is free speech! You can't do this!" shows you about how much Twitter understands laws.
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