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> Think you're going to get funding and grow your company with a foreign TLD doing something that the US government might disapprove of? The web's biggest site

by bo1024 15y ago

> Think you're going to get funding and grow your company with a foreign TLD doing something that the US government might disapprove of? The web's biggest sites right now (e.g. YouTube and Facebook) are doing things the U.S. government doesn't approve of. They haven't been shut down ... yet ... but Megaupload has, and what's the functional difference between what Megaupload does and what YouTube does? My point is just that the way the U.S. gov't is going, no decent web application is safe from being taken down. Anything with user-generated content is basically wide open for seizure.

elithrar 15y ago
> but Megaupload has, and what's the functional difference between what Megaupload does and what YouTube does? The difference, at an organisational level, is that MegaUpload is run by a very small team and is "foreign". Google/YouTube, on the other hand, is an American company employing a number of Americans. The majority of voters probably care little about MegaUpload (even if they should care). But you can be sure they'd care if YouTube was shut down/the domain seized.
- larrys 15y ago
  What you said reminded me of an old saying. It goes something like this. "If you owe the bank $10,000 and can't pay you have a problem. If you owe the bank $100,000,000 and can't pay the bank has a problem". Size matters.
- bo1024 15y ago
  Yes, exactly. What this means functionally is that small startups who do the exact same thing as the industry giants will be the ones targeted and shut down. The logical conclusion is that, if you want to start a web application, it might be worth it to found and host your company outside the US.
kijin 15y ago
What makes you think the US government doesn't approve of Facebook? Facebook is a gold mine for agencies that specialize in surveillance. Yeah, people sometimes organize protests on Facebook, but the Feds would probably much prefer them to be organized on Facebook than, let's say, on an encrypted foreign website that is more difficult to monitor. Or even Twitter, where people don't post nearly as much personal information as they do on Facebook.

by bo1024 15y ago

elithrar 15y ago

> but Megaupload has, and what's the functional difference between what Megaupload does and what YouTube does? The difference, at an organisational level, is that MegaUpload is run by a very small team and is "foreign". Google/YouTube, on the other hand, is an American company employing a number of Americans. The majority of voters probably care little about MegaUpload (even if they should care). But you can be sure they'd care if YouTube was shut down/the domain seized.

larrys 15y ago
What you said reminded me of an old saying. It goes something like this. "If you owe the bank $10,000 and can't pay you have a problem. If you owe the bank $100,000,000 and can't pay the bank has a problem". Size matters.
bo1024 15y ago
Yes, exactly. What this means functionally is that small startups who do the exact same thing as the industry giants will be the ones targeted and shut down. The logical conclusion is that, if you want to start a web application, it might be worth it to found and host your company outside the US.

kijin 15y ago

What makes you think the US government doesn't approve of Facebook? Facebook is a gold mine for agencies that specialize in surveillance. Yeah, people sometimes organize protests on Facebook, but the Feds would probably much prefer them to be organized on Facebook than, let's say, on an encrypted foreign website that is more difficult to monitor. Or even Twitter, where people don't post nearly as much personal information as they do on Facebook.