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> If I run a lemonade stand, and a UK citizen walks up a pays a dollar for a glass of lemonade, then that doesn't give the UK jurisdiction over the lemonade sta

> If I run a lemonade stand, and a UK citizen walks up a pays a dollar for a glass of lemonade, then that doesn't give the UK jurisdiction over the lemonade stand. You are allowed to sell lemonade to British tourists. But if you're shipping lemonade to the UK, you are subject to UK lemonade regulations. That doesn't mean that the UK has jurisdiction over your business and can shut it down or anything like that, but if you travel to the UK or UK banks handle your transactions, they have the right to seize funds and shipments, close your accounts or detain you if you set foot in the UK. Your choice are: follow UK regulations; stop shipping lemonade to the UK; or continue as you were, never go to the UK, and know that the UK can always ban shipments from your stand. The US does the same thing all the time, and even worse[1]. Lots of piracy sites located in jurisdictions where US copyright laws don't apply are seized by US federal agencies and replaced with a notice about piracy. Those sites haven't broken any laws in the countries they're hosted in, they have no legal presence in the US, and yet the domains are banned/seized and administrators detained if they ever step foot on US soil. The UK is not threatening to seize anyone's site. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_In_Our_Sites https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Operation_In_Our_Sites

justinclift 1y ago
> The UK is not threatening to seize anyone's site. Yet? :)
galangalalgol 1y ago
Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? It isn't even generally possible for them to do correctly. A better analogy would be that a british person hired someone who looked and sounded american to go to the us to buy some lemonade and have it shipped to the uk where having it breaks the law, and then blaming the lemonade stand.
- integralid 1y ago
  A good start would be to use geoip. It's not perfect, but it will almost certainly be enough to make UK happy (the same happens when detecting European for GDPR purposes).
  - eptcyka 1y ago
    Lmao, why would a web server operator need to care where their clients send requests from? Imagine if half the countries in the world required this, each with distinct requirements on how to handle traffic from their jurisdictions. Insane. Relieve us of the misery of acting as though OFCOM’s requests are reasonable- they are not.
- NicuCalcea 1y ago
  > Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? Why not? It's their responsibility to comply with UK laws if they want to keep serving British customers and making money off of them. Just because the service is provided online doesn't mean it can go on unregulated. You're acting like this is something new that websites haven't had to do for decades.
  - grayhatter 1y ago
    > > Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? > Why not? Because laws vary from location to location, and it's an unreasonable for a [UK] agency to make demands from an exclusively [US] group under the assumption that they are aware of every possible law in existence. Someone in the [US] can't expect to have reasonable influence over the laws in the [UK] that they're now required to follow? That's a blatantly unfair system. That's why not. But actually why? You confidently assert that because it has happened before, that's the way it should always be! You're still trying to apply rules for jurisdiction, that don't map well to the Internet. If I was sending someone to the UK to buy and sell, I think your arguments would make sense. But that's not the analogy that applies here. The better analogy is, people from the UK are traveling across jurisdictional lines, and buying from my shop, based exclusively in my country. My country feels privacy and anonymity are important fundamental rights, and my business exists to that end. Here, instead of trying to control UK citizens, and making it illegal for them to travel to the US to do something they want to prevent, they instead are trying to force the US group to attempt to doxx every user and exclude some of them. That feels insane to me, what's your take on that examplev Also, I feel it's important to note, part of the reason they're using this specific tactic, is because they're aware how impossible and intractable their demands actually are. To call internet geolocation complex or error prone would be an understatement. So based exclusively that they're demanding someone other than them should tackle a near impossible task, should be enough of a reason to reject the demand. Legal or not, unreasonable demands deserve rejection.
    - NicuCalcea 1y ago
      > under the assumption that they are aware of every possible law in existence That's why Ofcom started the correspondence, to inform 4chan of laws it may not have been aware of. > Someone in the [US] can't expect to have reasonable influence over the laws in the [UK] that they're now required to follow UK companies comply with US laws all the time if they want to continue serving US audiences. I wish this wasn't the case, but this isn't new. Similarly, lots of US news websites aren't available in the EU/UK because they don't comply with GDPR. None of this is new, there's lots of precedent for it. > You're still trying to apply rules for jurisdiction, that don't map well to the Internet Sure they do. When I go to boards.4chan.org, the server recognises my request, including where it's coming from, and returns some content. Similarly, when I buy lemonade from a company, they see my shipping address and ships the lemonade. Seems to me like it maps pretty well. > To call internet geolocation complex or error prone would be an understatement All other service providers have imposed IP-based limits and that has satisfied Ofcom, so no need to make it more complex than necessary. > Legal or not, unreasonable demands deserve rejection. Of course, 4chan is free to reject the demands, just like The Pirate Bay (based in Sweden) have rejected demands from the US government, that was always an option. Ofcom is making the demands to then be able to enforce the OSA, for example by blocking 4chan, without 4chan saying they were not aware of the demands.
grayhatter 1y ago
> But if you're shipping lemonade to the UK, you are subject to UK lemonade regulations. I was with you up until here. Shipping to a physical address, where if you don't specify the country name, it won't arrive. Is very different than shipping to an Internet address, which has no "reasonable" connection to a physical location. > Your choice are: follow UK regulations [give up the core gimmick of your entire site]; stop shipping lemonade to the UK [the shipping analogy really breaks here, how? and what about vpns? what if the other endpoint is in the UK but the address isn't?]; or continue as you were, never go to the UK, and know that the UK can always ban shipments from your stand. I don't disagree that [country] can make laws that make society worse... But I don't think it's reasonable to defend them as if these actions aren't egregious. There's the armchair arguments that I enjoy as a thought experiment, but it's still important to point out how antisocial this behavior is. > The US does the same thing all the time, and even worse [...] There's an argument to be made they're using a domain registratar in the US, which is subject to those laws (obviously). But what about [other disappointing behavior] because it's worse. Is exactly the example you're arguing against. Precedence of bad stuff is still bad, ideally everyone would point out it's bad, and suggest alternatives to the bad thing, no?
- NicuCalcea 1y ago
  > But I don't think it's reasonable to defend them as if these actions aren't egregious I'm not defending the Online Safety Act, I think it's a horrible and stupid law. On the other hand, I will defend GDPR, which uses a similar legal framework of enforcement. My argument is that the UK is within its rights to implement and enforce laws as they see fit, not that the laws are good.
  - grayhatter 1y ago
    > My argument is that the UK is within its rights to implement and enforce laws as they see fit, not that the laws are good. The argument you are making, is that the laws, and the behavior they're enabling is reasonable. That may not what you meant to convey, but to abuse an analogy, it is fruit from the poisoned tree. You can't defend some action, without by proxy defending the source. Either the law is reasonable, and ofcom is acting reasonably, or the law is unreasonable, and ofcom is acting unreasonably trying to enforce it. Correct or not, or technically legal in the UK or not. You can defend the actions of ofcom, as not illegal, but that's not what you're doing, and not the context of this thread.

justinclift 1y ago

> The UK is not threatening to seize anyone's site. Yet? :)

galangalalgol 1y ago

Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? It isn't even generally possible for them to do correctly. A better analogy would be that a british person hired someone who looked and sounded american to go to the us to buy some lemonade and have it shipped to the uk where having it breaks the law, and then blaming the lemonade stand.

integralid 1y ago
A good start would be to use geoip. It's not perfect, but it will almost certainly be enough to make UK happy (the same happens when detecting European for GDPR purposes).
- eptcyka 1y ago
  Lmao, why would a web server operator need to care where their clients send requests from? Imagine if half the countries in the world required this, each with distinct requirements on how to handle traffic from their jurisdictions. Insane. Relieve us of the misery of acting as though OFCOM’s requests are reasonable- they are not.
NicuCalcea 1y ago
> Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? Why not? It's their responsibility to comply with UK laws if they want to keep serving British customers and making money off of them. Just because the service is provided online doesn't mean it can go on unregulated. You're acting like this is something new that websites haven't had to do for decades.
- grayhatter 1y ago
  > > Why is it the website operators job to figure out where people are from? > Why not? Because laws vary from location to location, and it's an unreasonable for a [UK] agency to make demands from an exclusively [US] group under the assumption that they are aware of every possible law in existence. Someone in the [US] can't expect to have reasonable influence over the laws in the [UK] that they're now required to follow? That's a blatantly unfair system. That's why not. But actually why? You confidently assert that because it has happened before, that's the way it should always be! You're still trying to apply rules for jurisdiction, that don't map well to the Internet. If I was sending someone to the UK to buy and sell, I think your arguments would make sense. But that's not the analogy that applies here. The better analogy is, people from the UK are traveling across jurisdictional lines, and buying from my shop, based exclusively in my country. My country feels privacy and anonymity are important fundamental rights, and my business exists to that end. Here, instead of trying to control UK citizens, and making it illegal for them to travel to the US to do something they want to prevent, they instead are trying to force the US group to attempt to doxx every user and exclude some of them. That feels insane to me, what's your take on that examplev Also, I feel it's important to note, part of the reason they're using this specific tactic, is because they're aware how impossible and intractable their demands actually are. To call internet geolocation complex or error prone would be an understatement. So based exclusively that they're demanding someone other than them should tackle a near impossible task, should be enough of a reason to reject the demand. Legal or not, unreasonable demands deserve rejection.
  - NicuCalcea 1y ago
    > under the assumption that they are aware of every possible law in existence That's why Ofcom started the correspondence, to inform 4chan of laws it may not have been aware of. > Someone in the [US] can't expect to have reasonable influence over the laws in the [UK] that they're now required to follow UK companies comply with US laws all the time if they want to continue serving US audiences. I wish this wasn't the case, but this isn't new. Similarly, lots of US news websites aren't available in the EU/UK because they don't comply with GDPR. None of this is new, there's lots of precedent for it. > You're still trying to apply rules for jurisdiction, that don't map well to the Internet Sure they do. When I go to boards.4chan.org, the server recognises my request, including where it's coming from, and returns some content. Similarly, when I buy lemonade from a company, they see my shipping address and ships the lemonade. Seems to me like it maps pretty well. > To call internet geolocation complex or error prone would be an understatement All other service providers have imposed IP-based limits and that has satisfied Ofcom, so no need to make it more complex than necessary. > Legal or not, unreasonable demands deserve rejection. Of course, 4chan is free to reject the demands, just like The Pirate Bay (based in Sweden) have rejected demands from the US government, that was always an option. Ofcom is making the demands to then be able to enforce the OSA, for example by blocking 4chan, without 4chan saying they were not aware of the demands.

grayhatter 1y ago

> But if you're shipping lemonade to the UK, you are subject to UK lemonade regulations. I was with you up until here. Shipping to a physical address, where if you don't specify the country name, it won't arrive. Is very different than shipping to an Internet address, which has no "reasonable" connection to a physical location. > Your choice are: follow UK regulations [give up the core gimmick of your entire site]; stop shipping lemonade to the UK [the shipping analogy really breaks here, how? and what about vpns? what if the other endpoint is in the UK but the address isn't?]; or continue as you were, never go to the UK, and know that the UK can always ban shipments from your stand. I don't disagree that [country] can make laws that make society worse... But I don't think it's reasonable to defend them as if these actions aren't egregious. There's the armchair arguments that I enjoy as a thought experiment, but it's still important to point out how antisocial this behavior is. > The US does the same thing all the time, and even worse [...] There's an argument to be made they're using a domain registratar in the US, which is subject to those laws (obviously). But what about [other disappointing behavior] because it's worse. Is exactly the example you're arguing against. Precedence of bad stuff is still bad, ideally everyone would point out it's bad, and suggest alternatives to the bad thing, no?

NicuCalcea 1y ago
> But I don't think it's reasonable to defend them as if these actions aren't egregious I'm not defending the Online Safety Act, I think it's a horrible and stupid law. On the other hand, I will defend GDPR, which uses a similar legal framework of enforcement. My argument is that the UK is within its rights to implement and enforce laws as they see fit, not that the laws are good.
- grayhatter 1y ago
  > My argument is that the UK is within its rights to implement and enforce laws as they see fit, not that the laws are good. The argument you are making, is that the laws, and the behavior they're enabling is reasonable. That may not what you meant to convey, but to abuse an analogy, it is fruit from the poisoned tree. You can't defend some action, without by proxy defending the source. Either the law is reasonable, and ofcom is acting reasonably, or the law is unreasonable, and ofcom is acting unreasonably trying to enforce it. Correct or not, or technically legal in the UK or not. You can defend the actions of ofcom, as not illegal, but that's not what you're doing, and not the context of this thread.