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by FireBeyond 4098 days ago
"but I am worried that the government has such an easy avenue to get this information"

This is a public forum. Hell, one of the users even VOLUNTEERED himself to be interviewed by the users of one of the most popular websites in the world under the topic of what amounts to "I run or help run a drug smuggling/selling marketplace".

What reasonable expectation should this user have to privacy? You can't do all these things in public and then say "well, the government shouldn't be able to look at me for it" - I'd think what he did met the very definition of probable cause.
1 comments
themgt 4098 days ago
Yes, and the parent was arguing that the internet should have communication systems whereby people can speak in public without the government being able to look at them for it.
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FireBeyond 4098 days ago
Things aren't special "because ... Internet!". If something is done in public, it's done in public. If you'd face consequences for it on the street, why shouldn't you online? I can't see any particular level of logic than "we should be able to get away with shit online".

Note, for emphasis, that this is entirely an aside to the subject of legalization, as I'm actually much more pro-legalization than anything else.

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wmf 4098 days ago
The Federalist Papers were published pseudonymously in 1787. I don't think people are asking for special privileges for the Internet.
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themgt 4097 days ago
Just to correct the downthread derail, I'm guessing you were confusing this with Common Sense, Thomas Paine's anonymously published 1776 pamphlet calling for rebellion against Britain.
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Steko 4098 days ago
We're the Federalist Papers advocating/admitting to illegal activity?
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undersuit 4097 days ago
Yes? Here are a number of essays that lay out the issues with the current government and ways to make a better government written by a number of influential U.S. figures during the war that led to the U.S. independence from Britain.

You think the British weren't concerned at all about who was writing this propaganda and weren't willing to violate the "rights" of their colonists... because I think the authors were quite concerned.

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Steko 4097 days ago
The British recognized US independence in 1783; Federalist Papers published in 1787-88.

Regardless if the Federalist Papers had bragged about smuggling a subsequent investigation would have compelled printers etc to name the authors.

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