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"As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the fee by the government would force Yahoo to clos

"As I see it, eventually Yahoo would rack up such a bill that they couldn't afford it, and any collection of the fee by the government would force Yahoo to close its doors." Yahoo is about to get $20bn+ in cash in about 2 weeks, so they can hold out these fines for about 80,000 days.

joshavant 12y ago
Fair enough. But it still stands, couldn't Yahoo ignore it? What's the worst thing the government could do to Yahoo that would go unnoticed by the public, if Yahoo didn't comply?
- AVTizzle 12y ago
  That's an expensive gamble, with probable jail time somewhere in there for the responsible execs.
  - joshavant 12y ago
    I find it very hard to believe any government agency could take Marissa Mayer or anyone on the board off to jail with no reason and not cause a huge stir...
    - plorkyeran 12y ago
      I find it very easy to believe that the NSA could find a crime which Marissa Mayer (or anyone else) is guilty of and carries jail time as a punishment.
      - idlewords 12y ago
        If you want to break out the black helicopters, note that it would have to be the FBI that did this.
        dredmorbius 12y ago
        No. The NSA would find the crime and communicate it to the FBI. But if your point is that the NSA have no law enforcement role, that's salient. Also: check your mail WRT http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm I've posted a few fixes to that (excellent piece BTW) from my gmail account.
        idlewords 12y ago
        I will never check my email. Mwahahahaha!
        dredmorbius 12y ago
        http://i.imgur.com/NgmuHGn.jpg http://i.imgur.com/NgmuHGn.jpg
tjohns 12y ago
If Yahoo continued to resist, I'm sure the government would just gradually increase the amount until they had no choice but to comply. These kinds of fines are usually issued for contempt of court. Judges don't take kindly to parties that try to ignore a court order, which would include writing off a court imposed fine as a cost of business. There's few things more terrifying than an angry judge with full power of contempt. There's no principle of proportionality, which gives judges almost unlimited authority. See Chadwick v Janecka (3rd Cir. 2002) as an example.
- randomfool 12y ago
  But Yahoo is a public company and the ones they are punishing is the shareholders. At what point does the government need to tell shareholders that they are siphoning cash?

joshavant 12y ago

Fair enough. But it still stands, couldn't Yahoo ignore it? What's the worst thing the government could do to Yahoo that would go unnoticed by the public, if Yahoo didn't comply?

AVTizzle 12y ago
That's an expensive gamble, with probable jail time somewhere in there for the responsible execs.
- joshavant 12y ago
  I find it very hard to believe any government agency could take Marissa Mayer or anyone on the board off to jail with no reason and not cause a huge stir...
  - plorkyeran 12y ago
    I find it very easy to believe that the NSA could find a crime which Marissa Mayer (or anyone else) is guilty of and carries jail time as a punishment.
    - idlewords 12y ago
      If you want to break out the black helicopters, note that it would have to be the FBI that did this.
      - dredmorbius 12y ago
        No. The NSA would find the crime and communicate it to the FBI. But if your point is that the NSA have no law enforcement role, that's salient. Also: check your mail WRT http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm http://idlewords.com/bt14.htm I've posted a few fixes to that (excellent piece BTW) from my gmail account.
        idlewords 12y ago
        I will never check my email. Mwahahahaha!
        dredmorbius 12y ago
        http://i.imgur.com/NgmuHGn.jpg http://i.imgur.com/NgmuHGn.jpg

tjohns 12y ago

If Yahoo continued to resist, I'm sure the government would just gradually increase the amount until they had no choice but to comply. These kinds of fines are usually issued for contempt of court. Judges don't take kindly to parties that try to ignore a court order, which would include writing off a court imposed fine as a cost of business. There's few things more terrifying than an angry judge with full power of contempt. There's no principle of proportionality, which gives judges almost unlimited authority. See Chadwick v Janecka (3rd Cir. 2002) as an example.

randomfool 12y ago
But Yahoo is a public company and the ones they are punishing is the shareholders. At what point does the government need to tell shareholders that they are siphoning cash?