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Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

tomshardware.com

221–230 of 301 posts

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#221

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Produce a succinct, widely-agreed-upon definition of "harmful to children".

The Utah statute defines it as: > (a) any material that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest; > (b) material that exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction of any of th…

> Sounds reasonable enough, wouldn't you say?

You're willfully ignoring the "culture war" aspects of "a" and "c".

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#222
post #49

What a coincidence that Utah is following the same pattern as Australia, the European Union, Norway and the UK, while pretending they came up with it independently.

Utah is actually trailblazing ahead of the UK here. It was only ministers possibly suggesting VPNs would be next in the firing line and AFAIK nothing has progressed beyond that yet Yet articles about UK age verification stuff got HUGE amount of attention and backlash here...

There is a clear parallel to the Criminal Justice Bills brought in by Tony Blair supposedly to stop "terrorism" (even though terrorism had been a serious issue in the UK from the late 1960s to the late 1990s, especially in Northern Ireland.)

Now we have Keir Starmer promoting internet ID to stop minors accessing porn on the internet side, and supposedly against illegal migration on the non-internet side.

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#224

I am completely baffled by this wave of new laws and proposals... they feel dystopic and can seemingly only lead to brutal restrictions on the internet. What will we end up with? Only attested modems / endpoints in the home? With DPI? And a government issued smartcard to use it? It comes across as if this is what some legislators are actually after... they must have some technical advisors who can explain to them tha…

The end goal is a government license to access the internet. But I think it's less regulatory, and more poli-social. There are individuals within the political stratosphere that are adamantly against anonymity on the Internet because they want to be able to attach speech to specific individuals, and punish if necessary for wrong-think.

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#225

I am completely baffled by this wave of new laws and proposals... they feel dystopic and can seemingly only lead to brutal restrictions on the internet. What will we end up with? Only attested modems / endpoints in the home? With DPI? And a government issued smartcard to use it? It comes across as if this is what some legislators are actually after... they must have some technical advisors who can explain to them tha…

Also notice that even on here, a site ostensibly for "hackers" and other traditionally civil liberty-minded users, we don't tend to hear about these proposed laws until they're already passed or otherwise too late to stop.

Some might find that a bit odd.

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#226

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Outside of a W-2 salary, there are ways, more applicable to businesses, also to independent contractors. Even for those with a salary, they ought to do their best to collect all the legally qualified benefits that they can. Lots of independent contractors get paid as W-2 when they could be getting paid as a corp, for which they could write off a portion of the taxes via deductibles and in various other ways. Lots of…

I don't think anyone voluntarily pays more taxes than they ought to. People DO collect all their legally qualified benefits. It's why software like turbo tax is still around despite being a shitty company.

I disagree completely. There are all manner of loopholes and benefits that people fail to avail. Even the people with only a salary end up paying too much in sales tax and property tax.

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#227

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Can you describe in detail the end game and how you came to know it?

The endgame is perfectly described in Orwell's 1984 and certain Protocols.

> Protocols

The antisemitic ones?

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#228

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The endgame is perfectly described in Orwell's 1984 and certain Protocols.

> Protocols The antisemitic ones?

No. It is zionism, which is orthogonal to semitism, that was chosen as the blame-shifting cover for the message, to put both proponents and opponents of said message on the false trail, but that's not how they should be read.

The Protocols should be read as the message from those who are absolutelty corrupt with absolute power and want to remain in that power forever, regardless of the mask they wear. And they always wear and drop multiple masks, to render all attempts to identify them futile.

It is their actions that identify their presence and persistence better than any labels, and those actions doubled down since 9/11 and quadrupled since 2020.

Orwell used the term "Big Brother", and that should suffice.

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#229

Earlier quoted context omitted.

The Utah statute defines it as: > (a) any material that the average person, applying contemporary community standards, would find, taking the material as a whole and with respect to minors, is designed to appeal to, or is designed to pander to, the prurient interest; > (b) material that exploits, is devoted to, or principally consists of descriptions of actual, simulated, or animated display or depiction of any of th…

> Sounds reasonable enough, wouldn't you say? You're willfully ignoring the "culture war" aspects of "a" and "c".

Why don't you explain what you mean instead of making unsubstantiated claims about what you think I'm ignoring?

Re: Utah to hold websites liable for users who mask their location with VPNs

#230

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Oh OK, thanks for clarifying that I can pay less than I owe and be scot free.

Make less, pay less. If you’ve had a successful career already, you may be able to “drop out” and find a place to live cheaply. I’ve heard good things about Panama.

If you've had a successful career already you probably already paid a lot of taxes, unless you're a billionaire in which case you're not paying taxes anyway.
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