4 ms·

Um, nope. Go ahead, try applying EU law to a US website. I run a few, by all means, knock yourself out. It's hilarious and baffling at the same time that you th

Um, nope. Go ahead, try applying EU law to a US website. I run a few, by all means, knock yourself out. It's hilarious and baffling at the same time that you think the EU can write laws for other countries.

tzs 9y ago
If you are selling things to people in country X, you have to be very careful if you decide to ignore X's laws for such sales. You and your company may be beyond the legal reach of X, but your suppliers and service providers might not be. For example, if you decide to ignore tax laws in X, X might put pressure on your credit card processors to stop aiding your tax evasion. If the credit card processors respond by cutting off your ability to processes card, they might not bother just cutting you off from accepting payments from country X. They might cut you off completely. That would be pretty annoying.
- jakeogh 9y ago
  That's a feature. I want to know if the people I do business with are applying laws to me that do not apply. Too "bad" about the US dropping the TPP, I assume that was the backdoor planned for "compliance".
  - ascorbic 9y ago
    If you have users in the EU then the laws do apply to you, even if you insist they do not. If you don't then you have nothing to worry about.
    - jakeogh 9y ago
      By your logic, any country can make up a law, go to my US website, and demand I follow it. Demand all you want, this is the point of national sovereignty.
      - ascorbic 9y ago
        By your logic, you should be allowed to go to Ladbrokes.com and put some cash on tonight's NBA games. I could if I wanted to, and I'm sure Ladbrokes would love to take your bets if they could. But you can't, because countries can make laws about selling to their residents. Ladbrokes blocks you, because US law says they must. I'm sure you can rely on your site being too small for EU regulators to bother with, and I'm sure it would be hard for them to enforce if you have no operations in the EU, but the fact you ignore the laws doesn't mean they lack jurisdiction.
        jakeogh 9y ago
        Irrelevant. Ladbrokes is not a US firm, I don't know, need to know, or care what their legal system is. It's entirely possible their laws require them to comply with US law, or that they have assets in the US. A website hosted in the US, owned by a US citizen, residing in the US, is not subject to laws written in other countries.
        ascorbic 9y ago
        The reason I used the example of a gambling website is precisely because the US has history of prosecuting the operators of non-US websites for allowing US residents to join. There's nothing in UK law that says they can't let Americans bet. Didn't stop US authorities arresting several bosses of EU gambling websites. If you do a bit more research you'll learn that the US uses extra-territorial jurisdiction more than anyone. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/technology/18gamble.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/technology/18gamble.html
        jakeogh 9y ago
        Sure, that's true. It's a different subject. If one's country allows a foreign system to operate outside of it's own legal system, it's about as strong of a sign as I can think of that the people do not actually control their government. As a US citizen, I am strongly against our interference in other countries, but even if/when we fix that, it wont matter if the root problem is not fixed, since another outside power could do the same thing.
lagadu 9y ago
They can't enforce them on other countries but they can: - Have their ISPs block access to your network - Have their banks not process payments to you And if you really want to generalize it to "laws" they can emit an arrest warrant: good luck ever travelling to another country that has an extradition treaty with any EU country. They can't prevent a business in another jurisdiction from operating but they sure can prevent your business from being conducted with any EEA entities.
- jakeogh 9y ago
  Very true. All that is good and the way it should be. Markets of ideas are a good thing.

tzs 9y ago

If you are selling things to people in country X, you have to be very careful if you decide to ignore X's laws for such sales. You and your company may be beyond the legal reach of X, but your suppliers and service providers might not be. For example, if you decide to ignore tax laws in X, X might put pressure on your credit card processors to stop aiding your tax evasion. If the credit card processors respond by cutting off your ability to processes card, they might not bother just cutting you off from accepting payments from country X. They might cut you off completely. That would be pretty annoying.

jakeogh 9y ago
That's a feature. I want to know if the people I do business with are applying laws to me that do not apply. Too "bad" about the US dropping the TPP, I assume that was the backdoor planned for "compliance".
- ascorbic 9y ago
  If you have users in the EU then the laws do apply to you, even if you insist they do not. If you don't then you have nothing to worry about.
  - jakeogh 9y ago
    By your logic, any country can make up a law, go to my US website, and demand I follow it. Demand all you want, this is the point of national sovereignty.
    - ascorbic 9y ago
      By your logic, you should be allowed to go to Ladbrokes.com and put some cash on tonight's NBA games. I could if I wanted to, and I'm sure Ladbrokes would love to take your bets if they could. But you can't, because countries can make laws about selling to their residents. Ladbrokes blocks you, because US law says they must. I'm sure you can rely on your site being too small for EU regulators to bother with, and I'm sure it would be hard for them to enforce if you have no operations in the EU, but the fact you ignore the laws doesn't mean they lack jurisdiction.
      - jakeogh 9y ago
        Irrelevant. Ladbrokes is not a US firm, I don't know, need to know, or care what their legal system is. It's entirely possible their laws require them to comply with US law, or that they have assets in the US. A website hosted in the US, owned by a US citizen, residing in the US, is not subject to laws written in other countries.
        ascorbic 9y ago
        The reason I used the example of a gambling website is precisely because the US has history of prosecuting the operators of non-US websites for allowing US residents to join. There's nothing in UK law that says they can't let Americans bet. Didn't stop US authorities arresting several bosses of EU gambling websites. If you do a bit more research you'll learn that the US uses extra-territorial jurisdiction more than anyone. http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/technology/18gamble.html http://www.nytimes.com/2006/07/18/technology/18gamble.html
        jakeogh 9y ago
        Sure, that's true. It's a different subject. If one's country allows a foreign system to operate outside of it's own legal system, it's about as strong of a sign as I can think of that the people do not actually control their government. As a US citizen, I am strongly against our interference in other countries, but even if/when we fix that, it wont matter if the root problem is not fixed, since another outside power could do the same thing.

lagadu 9y ago

They can't enforce them on other countries but they can: - Have their ISPs block access to your network - Have their banks not process payments to you And if you really want to generalize it to "laws" they can emit an arrest warrant: good luck ever travelling to another country that has an extradition treaty with any EU country. They can't prevent a business in another jurisdiction from operating but they sure can prevent your business from being conducted with any EEA entities.

jakeogh 9y ago
Very true. All that is good and the way it should be. Markets of ideas are a good thing.