Quote:
Originally Posted by Big Stig
If anyone thinks they are going to give out 10/25 years for posting shit in hooker sites on the internet, they better start building more jails, and lots of them.  |
Posting? No. Probably not. Operating? Yup. And if nobody operates the sites, you have a chicken/egg problem. (to wit, nowhere to post).
And take a single provider with a website: while the feds probably
won't prosecute that, they now clearly
can. And with discretion, you get stupid shit: let's not forget Mary Beth Buchanen, who spend 10 million bucks chasing Tommy Chong into federal court in Pittsburgh for selling bongs. Not weed. Bongs.
It's the "chilling effects" stuff. And it's legitimately problematic. A single provider can probably get around this shit by hosting her site and domain registration in an offshore location where prostitution is legal or tolerated (who likely won't work with the feds as a result). Someone like ECCIE or Indys or TER could do that stuff, but has one problem: money. One can't repatriate the money (likely) without either doing accounting tricks which themselves would invite scrutiny or a trip to club fed on the basis of the money machinations alone. I suppose an enterprising European who never wants to visit the US could set up a site....
I think this stuff will get shot down on it's first application to a non-trafficking situation. But folks aren't gonna be lining up to be the test case (see: chilling effects). The net result is going to be underground groups and non-public platforms for trading hofo, which doesn't really make anyone involved any safer but nobody (nobody!) has ever accused the government of thinking it all the way through....
Craigslist
