stupid question time
10 Jun 2009 01:54 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
kaigouI figure someone on my elist is gonna know the answer to this one. Maybe?
Context: I'm aware that different countries have different laws about what is, and is not, legal. Like the fact that the US considers the demarcation of child pornography to be 18, not 16, as it is in some other countries. Or, perhaps purchases of drug paraphernalia. And whatever else: but essentially, things you cannot just walk into a local store and buy, because of your country's laws. (Cuban cigars, anyone?)
But over the internet, wouldn't that be a different matter? Let's say we're talking about... oh, hmm, like, ebooks. Righto. There's a good example. I order one by going to the publisher's or distributor's site, I put in my c'card -- or I use Paypal -- and within a few minutes, I download the book and read it. If I'm ordering from an international publisher (and yes, I do, actually), then my bank or credit card converts the foreign currency into my local rates based on the most recent exchange and I'm good to go. No extra effort on my part.
And, more importantly, no customs officials to rip open my email or download and inspect it thoroughly. It's true that any computer can track my IP, and that some countries do have domain-wide blocks, but there are oodles of ebook publishers and distributors and they're growing with every month and week. I have real trouble believing that any govt has the capacity to track down all those domains and block them for all in-country IPs -- yes, it can be done, but outside one really notable example, I've not heard of any other country having such major domain-blocks on its citizens' access to the internet.
Without those blocks, I can't see anywhere else -- technologically -- that I could be prevented from purchasing something over the internet that arrives in my email box, or that I then download from a site. If I can see the site, I can interact with it. At least, that's my understanding.
Am I wrong? Does anyone on my flist live somewhere that even online-purchase-and-download is limited or restricted (such as ebooks, or software, or any other kind of completely-electronic money-for-goods exchange)?
I'm not advocating breaking the law, if law it be. But it does seem to me that it's one thing to shy away from purchases that will be shipped internationally and inspected by customs... versus a purchase made in the privacy of your own home, that gets lost in the morass of internet traffic and about which no one would ever freaking know.
Or a better way to put it: if one is so worried about breaking the law by purchasing certain types of electronic materials, wouldn't possession of those materials also constitute breaking the law? Would it really amount to much of a defense if you told the judge that, well, the child pornography was a gift, so it's not like you actually spent money on it. Based on what I've seen of the way the world works, I don't think it makes any difference at all -- so if the laws are such that ordering a book, or a software, or whatever, would be bad, then it would follow that just owning such would also be bad... right?
Anyone?
Context: I'm aware that different countries have different laws about what is, and is not, legal. Like the fact that the US considers the demarcation of child pornography to be 18, not 16, as it is in some other countries. Or, perhaps purchases of drug paraphernalia. And whatever else: but essentially, things you cannot just walk into a local store and buy, because of your country's laws. (Cuban cigars, anyone?)
But over the internet, wouldn't that be a different matter? Let's say we're talking about... oh, hmm, like, ebooks. Righto. There's a good example. I order one by going to the publisher's or distributor's site, I put in my c'card -- or I use Paypal -- and within a few minutes, I download the book and read it. If I'm ordering from an international publisher (and yes, I do, actually), then my bank or credit card converts the foreign currency into my local rates based on the most recent exchange and I'm good to go. No extra effort on my part.
And, more importantly, no customs officials to rip open my email or download and inspect it thoroughly. It's true that any computer can track my IP, and that some countries do have domain-wide blocks, but there are oodles of ebook publishers and distributors and they're growing with every month and week. I have real trouble believing that any govt has the capacity to track down all those domains and block them for all in-country IPs -- yes, it can be done, but outside one really notable example, I've not heard of any other country having such major domain-blocks on its citizens' access to the internet.
Without those blocks, I can't see anywhere else -- technologically -- that I could be prevented from purchasing something over the internet that arrives in my email box, or that I then download from a site. If I can see the site, I can interact with it. At least, that's my understanding.
Am I wrong? Does anyone on my flist live somewhere that even online-purchase-and-download is limited or restricted (such as ebooks, or software, or any other kind of completely-electronic money-for-goods exchange)?
I'm not advocating breaking the law, if law it be. But it does seem to me that it's one thing to shy away from purchases that will be shipped internationally and inspected by customs... versus a purchase made in the privacy of your own home, that gets lost in the morass of internet traffic and about which no one would ever freaking know.
Or a better way to put it: if one is so worried about breaking the law by purchasing certain types of electronic materials, wouldn't possession of those materials also constitute breaking the law? Would it really amount to much of a defense if you told the judge that, well, the child pornography was a gift, so it's not like you actually spent money on it. Based on what I've seen of the way the world works, I don't think it makes any difference at all -- so if the laws are such that ordering a book, or a software, or whatever, would be bad, then it would follow that just owning such would also be bad... right?
Anyone?
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no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2009 02:00 am (UTC)That's still true, but that's regulated differently; it's not a matter of say, your country telling you that you can't buy so much as my country telling me that I can't sell it to you. We had all sorts of nightmares when I was in telecomm and dealing with a major AsiaPac project -- which meant potentially sending telecommunications sourcecode, over the internet, to a Chinese contracting company. OMFG you would've thought we'd offered to sell the baby jaysus to satan's minions -- all we were actually sending was the source code for an HTML page. But noooooo, it originated from telecom, so it was restricted. Heavily.
Hell, if you have security clearance and there's word you may have allowed citizens of certain countries access to certain softwares, you could lose your clearance.
But that's not the same as going on versiontracker and picking up a copy of shareware then paypalling your $10USD or 20SEK or whatever to the developer.
no subject
Date: 11 Jun 2009 02:45 am (UTC)That is hilarious.