6 ms·

This ultimately resulted in a new restriction in a bill making its way through Parliament that "a company must not be registered under this Act by a name that,

by saulr 3y ago

This ultimately resulted in a new restriction in a bill making its way through Parliament that "a company must not be registered under this Act by a name that, in the opinion of the Secretary of State, consists of or includes computer code". See page 16 of the Economic Crime and Corporate Transparency Bill (https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/49554/documents/2831 https://bills.parliament.uk/publications/49554/documents/283...)

schoen 3y ago
That's kind of awesome! Although it would be sad if this meant that, for example, one couldn't name a company after a programming language keyword (!?).
- beardyw 3y ago
  Like https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13199971 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07692623 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12222289 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... ... I could go on.
  - cachvico 3y ago
    That's why the Secretary of State (very important person) gets to make the call.
lastangryman 3y ago
Amazing. I would absolutely love to sit down with the Secretary of State and test their knowledge of what does of does not consist of of computer.
- omnicognate 3y ago
  Assuming this means the Secretary of State for Business and Trade (the UK has 17 Secretaries of State), the current one has a degree in computer systems engineering and has worked as a software engineer [1], so she probably has a fairly good idea. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemi_Badenoch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemi_Badenoch
  - pizzeys 3y ago
    I didn't know this, and have made the same snarky joke in dumb interviews about the company registration etc. - that's very cool and I will eat my words.
    - yreg 3y ago
      ⇡ This is the founder of Drop Table
      - postpawl 3y ago
        You’re sure it wasn’t just comment on the original thread? Looks like it was submitted by someone else?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280494
        yreg 3y ago
        He wrote a blogpost about it https://pizzey.me/posts/no-i-didnt-try-to-break-companies-house/ https://pizzey.me/posts/no-i-didnt-try-to-break-companies-ho...
  - mhh__ 3y ago
    She somehow got away with hacking into a rivals computer/server — she would contest the use of the word hacking but by the wording of the computer misuse act it's what she did.
zapdrive 3y ago
So "SELECT TRAVELS LTD." is prohibited? How about "Class Moving Ltd.", or "Sarah's wedding functions", or "Goto Grocery"?
- jwestbury 3y ago
  > in the opinion of the Secretary of State The Secretary of State gets to decide whether it's "computer code." It's not an objective decision. This is how things are supposed to work.
miquels 3y ago
Wait till they learn about Whitespace .. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_langua... )

by saulr 3y ago

schoen 3y ago

That's kind of awesome! Although it would be sad if this meant that, for example, one couldn't name a company after a programming language keyword (!?).

beardyw 3y ago
Like https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/13199971 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/07692623 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/company/12222289 https://find-and-update.company-information.service.gov.uk/c... ... I could go on.
- cachvico 3y ago
  That's why the Secretary of State (very important person) gets to make the call.

lastangryman 3y ago

Amazing. I would absolutely love to sit down with the Secretary of State and test their knowledge of what does of does not consist of of computer.

omnicognate 3y ago
Assuming this means the Secretary of State for Business and Trade (the UK has 17 Secretaries of State), the current one has a degree in computer systems engineering and has worked as a software engineer [1], so she probably has a fairly good idea. [1] https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemi_Badenoch https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kemi_Badenoch
- pizzeys 3y ago
  I didn't know this, and have made the same snarky joke in dumb interviews about the company registration etc. - that's very cool and I will eat my words.
  - yreg 3y ago
    ⇡ This is the founder of Drop Table
    - postpawl 3y ago
      You’re sure it wasn’t just comment on the original thread? Looks like it was submitted by someone else?: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280494 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13280494
      - yreg 3y ago
        He wrote a blogpost about it https://pizzey.me/posts/no-i-didnt-try-to-break-companies-house/ https://pizzey.me/posts/no-i-didnt-try-to-break-companies-ho...
- mhh__ 3y ago
  She somehow got away with hacking into a rivals computer/server — she would contest the use of the word hacking but by the wording of the computer misuse act it's what she did.

zapdrive 3y ago

So "SELECT TRAVELS LTD." is prohibited? How about "Class Moving Ltd.", or "Sarah's wedding functions", or "Goto Grocery"?

jwestbury 3y ago
> in the opinion of the Secretary of State The Secretary of State gets to decide whether it's "computer code." It's not an objective decision. This is how things are supposed to work.

miquels 3y ago

Wait till they learn about Whitespace .. ( https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_language) https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whitespace_(programming_langua... )