Hacker News new | ask | show | jobs
by turquoisevar 1017 days ago
It’s because they wanted their cake and eat it too, get as close as possible to the 4th amendment without crossing the line.

Put simply, if they have knowledge of it they have a duty to report, but they can’t be compelled to try and find out.

In theory this means that if they happen to stumble upon it or are being alerted to it by a third party (e.g. user report) then they have to report it, in practice many voluntarily monitor it, maybe because they want to avoid having to litigate that they didn’t have knowledge of it or maybe because it’s good PR or maybe because they care for the case.

I think in most cases it’s all of the above in one degree or another.
1 comments
salawat 1017 days ago
I have no qualms with voluntary monitoring and reporting. However the inclusion of the penalty imposes a tangible duty. That tangible duty is enough to convince me this act is effectively a de facto deputization. The act of searching is, in essence "look out for, raise signal when found". This Act does everything it can to try to cast the process that happens after the search phase as "the search forbidden by the 4th Amendment" instead of the explicitly penalized activity, which is couched as "voluntary, and not State mandated despite a $150000 price tag assessed by... The State". Even going so far as creating a quasi-government entity, primarily funded by the State whose entire purpose is explocitly intended to act as a legal facade to create sufficient "abstract distance" through which the State can claim "it twas not I who did it, but a private organization, Constitional protections do not apply"

Words mean things, and we've gotten damned loose with it these days in my opinion when the want strikes. "Voluntary" anything with a $150000 fine for not doing it is no longer voluntary. It's now your job. If it's your job, and the State punishes you for not doing it, you are a deputy of the State. I do not care how many layers of legal fiction and indirection are between you and the State.

If you can't not comply without jeopardy, it ain't voluntary.

link