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Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

pcgamer.com

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Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#141

Post by ipaddr »

p_ing wrote: post #58
cedws wrote: post #50

I'm glad the Mastercard-Visa duopoly is finally getting some attention, these companies shouldn't be allowed to exercise the financial control they do. Payment infrastructure is not a free market - you can't just choose to pay via some other processor if they turn you down, they ARE the processors. Therefore, they should be under intense scrutiny when they refuse.

There's no meaningful attention, here. Until it is on the US Gov't radar, this 'attention' is just a collection of upset redditors furiously posting forum messages which will fissile out in a few months, at most. Besides, it's not like you can boycott Mastercard or VISA.

You can boycott both but say goodbye to saas purchases and being tracked.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#142

Post by forgotoldacc »

raincole wrote: post #97
p_ing wrote: post #58

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There's no meaningful attention, here. Until it is on the US Gov't radar, this 'attention' is just a collection of upset redditors furiously posting forum messages which will fissile out in a few months, at most. Besides, it's not like you can boycott Mastercard or VISA.

> Besides, it's not like you can boycott Mastercard or VISA Most countries have some kinds of domestic transaction systems, or at least a more local credit card brand. They're also usually instant. It's more or less an US-only situation that people use Visa/Mastercard even for intranational stuff.

Most countries I've been to use Visa as their most common card. Living in a major Asian country and every bank and credit card company offers Visa as their main card as well.

China is kind of an outlier with Union Pay, and while a large number of countries offer their own alternatives, I'd say most are Visa-first. Apparently about 37% of cards around the world are Visa, so that's a huge chunk. JCB is the biggest non-Chinese non-American provider by revenue, and even they're a minor player in their home country.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#143

Post by JumpCrisscross »

weberer wrote: post #126
kmfrk wrote: post #17

Full title that doesn't fit in the HN headline: "Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down, but Valve says payment processors 'specifically cited' a Mastercard rule about damaging the brand" (For the people who don't click the link to read the article.)

It was Mastercard's rule, but any one of the companies in the payment network could have brought it up to Valve. The whole system is set up so one transaction has to go through up to 6 different companies, and they all have to abide by each other's rules. The US Internet Preservation Society explained it recently: >Each of these companies maintains its own terms of service and each of them can block a transaction by…

> was Mastercard's rule, but any one of the companies in the payment network could have brought it up to Valve

Did Mastercard threaten Valve? Or did Valve precomply?

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#144

Post by wongarsu »

zb3 wrote: post #79
mananaysiempre wrote: post #15

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Or a legally protected right to transact, ideally with cash-equivalent anonymity. I’d take either one.

Both require repealing AML/CFT laws. But maybe that's the way and we should focus on the underlying crime instead..

Bitcoin (and most other crypto) unintentionally strikes an interesting balance here. Through the ability to trace blockchain transactions and impose KYC laws on exchanges you can in principle figure out who most money belongs to. That puts you in a position where if A wants to send B money you can't prevent that, but you can go after either A or B. That gives you freedom of payment, but after the fact you can still go after people laundering money or financing terrorism

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#145

Post by soulofmischief »

zwnow wrote: post #128
soulofmischief wrote: post #115

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Because they have the decency to respect other people's rights to exercise free speech and carry out lawful transactions. This is a basic expectation of a democratic citizen.

[flagged]

I'm not sure why you're singling me out specifically when I'm trying to explain to you how the law works, but you speak like an entitled authoritarian nit. Luckily for the rest of us, your ignorant opinion doesn't supersede the US Constitution.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#146

Post by terinjokes »

KingOfCoders wrote: post #22
roenxi wrote: post #13

The US has some clear laws against government controlling speech and, in the abstract, that makes it pretty much impossible to censor games. Various factions - exactly who it is difficult to pin down - have been working hard to set up a system where they can shut things down without ever explicitly instructing anyone to do anything. This appears to be the system engaging by accident because some crazy from Australia…

Say fuck on TV.

Many stations affiliated with the ABC network did, from 2001 to 2004, in primetime by airing "Saving Private Ryan" unedited for Veterans Day.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#147

Post by forgotoldacc »

unsigner wrote: post #85
rs186 wrote: post #64

Dumb question: what if Steam only takes cash or crypto payment for these games, and leave them on the market? Cash is loaded from debit card and can be used for buying any games, while crypto apparently always works for everything. Would they still be on the hook?

how do you "take cash" over the Internet?

Japan lets you make payments for online content at convenience stores.

How it works is you purchase a product online and it gives you a barcode that can be scanned at any major convenience store. You go to the store, scan the code, hand over cash, and the content you bought is instantly unlocked once the payment is confirmed.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#148

Post by infecto »

roenxi wrote: post #13

The US has some clear laws against government controlling speech and, in the abstract, that makes it pretty much impossible to censor games. Various factions - exactly who it is difficult to pin down - have been working hard to set up a system where they can shut things down without ever explicitly instructing anyone to do anything. This appears to be the system engaging by accident because some crazy from Australia…

I am quite surprised how wrong opinions like yours are. There is no argument of free speech here, they are a private business and as such can decide what they allow and don’t allow on their network. It’s no different than if cloudflare had a click through that said no adult material.

You can hand wave around well they are a monopoly or some related argument but the government does not see it that way. Visa and Mastercard for decades have censored adult sites on their network. At the end of the day I suspect they would be happy to take the fees but they are the ones underwriting the risk and there have been cases over the year in the US at least that challenge how extreme you can go with Adult material. Even today there are certain categories that are much harder to get setup for processing.

Edit: to be ultra clear, I would love more competition in this space but at the same time there is no argument around free speech here.

Re: Mastercard deflects blame for NSFW games being taken down

#149

Post by yladiz »

bboygravity wrote: post #114
ginko wrote: post #78

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Honestly I hope this comes under the EU's radar.

Oh the EU will happily pass new laws to screen your entire life when you'd like to buy a game (and to record and store everything you talk about with fellow gamers in case you say something that goes against EU policies). EU will even arrange a special new bank account for ya outside of Visa Mastercard called CBDC. No problem. EU is here for ya! /s

What are you even talking about?
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