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You commit three felonies a day

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Re: You commit three felonies a day

#71

Post by xradionut »

thebooktocome wrote: post #57
xradionut wrote: post #40

Earlier quoted context omitted.

"But I suspect the NSA doesn't know how many guns you own. That alone is somehow seen as a violation of your rights" Have you purchased a firearm in the US from a licensed dealer recently? There's paper/digital record of most firearm purchase in most cases, with a few exceptions. There's a cursory background check ran too. (In the case of most US citizens the government doesn't care about small arms. Most are used fo…

You can purchase firearms for cash from many dealers (at gun shows) without either a background check or a paper trail.

This is one of the exceptions I mentioned. Also known as the "gun show loophole".

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#72

Post by genwin »

ccera wrote: post #50

I read that book when it came out. The title is sensationalist garbage -- the book shows how some people get snared by some fairly stupid federal laws and have their lives messed up by willfully malicious prosecution, which isn't good, of course, but nowhere does the author demonstrate how an average person commits three felonies in a YEAR, or in a LIFETIME, let alone in a day.

Have you ever not paid sales tax to your state, on an item you purchased tax-free online? That's felony tax evasion when the amount is high enough; varies by state.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#73

Post by JanezStupar »

JamisonM wrote: post #67
gambiting wrote: post #47

As a person coming from a former soviet republic, I am very familiar with the saying "show me a man, and I will show you the crime he is guilty of" - which basically meant that if KGB wanted to charge you with something, they always could find a paragraph for you, because there were so many and so vaguely defined. As an outsider, to me it seems that the USA is not a "free" country and I honestly don't see any differe…

This is a false equivalence. Just the fact that the US government feels compelled to hide a program like PRISM is a strong indication that there is a big difference between the Russian government and the US government (and certainly the Soviet government). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

There are better and worse slave masters.

But slave master is a slave master still.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#74

Post by [deleted] »

genwin wrote: post #72
ccera wrote: post #50

I read that book when it came out. The title is sensationalist garbage -- the book shows how some people get snared by some fairly stupid federal laws and have their lives messed up by willfully malicious prosecution, which isn't good, of course, but nowhere does the author demonstrate how an average person commits three felonies in a YEAR, or in a LIFETIME, let alone in a day.

Have you ever not paid sales tax to your state, on an item you purchased tax-free online? That's felony tax evasion when the amount is high enough; varies by state.

[deleted]

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#76

Post by pak »

Kiro wrote: post #20
einhverfr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silverglate talks about a number of cases, some of which have been addressed either before the book was written or after, but the overall problem is still out there. For example, see the honest services fraud charges against Jeff Skilling (of Enron fame), on the idea that anything dishonest any corporate executive might do would be depriving the corporation of honest services. Now the Supreme Court reversed Skilling'…

No, I want to know what felonies I commit.

The CFAA is probably a good place to start, since its concept of a "protected computer" essentially covers every computer on the internet, and its definition of authorized/unauthorized access is quite vague, and so left open to interpretation through case law. And there haven't been so many cases, so the precedent on many things is unclear.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Computer_Fraud_and_Abuse_Act

Try (a)(2)(C) on for size. If you have a jailbroken phone, its manufacturer might claim that you have unauthorized access to information on a protected computer, even if you are its owner (that's exactly what Sony argued against George Hotz, and they settled out of court, so we'll never know what the courts would have said about that argument). If you have any computer in your house that you modified in a way the manufacturer did not authorize, similar arguments may apply.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#77

Post by pekk »

JanezStupar wrote: post #73
JamisonM wrote: post #67

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This is a false equivalence. Just the fact that the US government feels compelled to hide a program like PRISM is a strong indication that there is a big difference between the Russian government and the US government (and certainly the Soviet government). https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_journalists_killed_in_...

There are better and worse slave masters. But slave master is a slave master still.

If you are working at will for pay, you are not being enslaved. Get a grip.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#78

Post by genwin »

Kiro wrote: post #20
einhverfr wrote: post #4

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Silverglate talks about a number of cases, some of which have been addressed either before the book was written or after, but the overall problem is still out there. For example, see the honest services fraud charges against Jeff Skilling (of Enron fame), on the idea that anything dishonest any corporate executive might do would be depriving the corporation of honest services. Now the Supreme Court reversed Skilling'…

No, I want to know what felonies I commit.

If your state has sales tax and you've bought stuff online without paying sales tax, check your state's law on that.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#79

Post by squozzer »

huherto wrote: post #39
danso wrote: post #7

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I've become more bearish about the idea of electronic medical records. The ability for a bureaucracy to keep those safe seems far, far off in the future, no matter what technology advances come through. And guns: well, if you're pro-gun-control, this mindset (justified or not) should help you understand why the NRA is so passionately against gun registration of any kind. In terms of the NSA: I don't think they care m…

All this NSA discovery has made a lot of damage. As an example, the NRA doesn't sound so crazy any more. And that is bad.

What is so bad about realizing that a group you've considered a bunch of crazies -- which perhaps was an inherited or taught viewpoint -- might actually be right about something?

You have no obligation to buy a belt-fed machine gun in the wake of your realization. Just understand that REAL government has a little more complexity -- and lower ethical standards -- than what you were told in Civics class.

Re: You commit three felonies a day

#80

Post by jasallen »

gambiting wrote: post #47

As a person coming from a former soviet republic, I am very familiar with the saying "show me a man, and I will show you the crime he is guilty of" - which basically meant that if KGB wanted to charge you with something, they always could find a paragraph for you, because there were so many and so vaguely defined. As an outsider, to me it seems that the USA is not a "free" country and I honestly don't see any differe…

"US...are doing to journalists"

The US government, still maintains a pretty strong protection of journalists. They will go after the leakers themselves, but rarely even attempt to make a journalist reveal a source, let alone prosecute the journalist directly for revealing secret information.

In fact, I say still, but this tendency has actually grown stronger over the last 50 years. It has, in my not-very-researched-opinion, grown stronger due to public pressures and effective civil disobedience. So, that heartens me. All governments screw-up, but some are screwed-up, I still don't think the US is one of the screwed-up - relative to the rest of the world and history - a LOT I wish they would do better.

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