Just look at this situation. Unless hotel security have been breaking the law, which is unlikely, staying at these hotels means they can legally search your room and possibly your things. The only thing standing in the way of this is the reaction from the organizers and attendees. So if you care about your rights you don't really have much of a choice than to react and moving, at least out of Las Vegas, shouldn't be a hard decision.
And this would be illegal in at least part of Europe since a hotel room is categorized as a temporary residence.
https://www.gsblaw.com/duff-on-hospitality-law/guest-room-pr...
https://scholarship.shu.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1048...
From my very basic understanding of what transpired, the hotel security were trespassing by entering a rented room. I'm not altogether familiar with state law in Nevada, but that could certainly be argued in California.
Hotel Security aren't the federal government. The 4th amendment? C'mon.
FWIW; at camping festivals, I know your tent also is a temporary residence and requires a warrant for search.
As I mentioned, this sounds like a case of trespassing. If it were me, I’d be pursuing charges on that basis.
Source, go through the body scanners at the TSA. Worn down, can't be bothered to "echo FUUUUUUUU > /dev/null" any more.
Of course, most places in Europe also have much stricter laws on guns. Many places aren't quite into the whole "free speech" thing in the way Americans are. These things are pretty important to a large number of attendees.
DEFCON is probably best regarded as a regional North American hacker con that reflects the culture and history of North American hackers. You cannot transplant DEFCON and preserve its cultural history. This is an issue of some concern, as it's the people and culture that matter the most at DEFCON rather than the conference that someone who has never attended might reasonably assume. After all, it's just a conference, right?
Continental Europe already has CCC. DEFCON's roots and history tie is pretty firmly to Vegas.
Guns are an easy example. Lockpicks are another - the UK does not smile on them. I'm saying you cannot readily relocate DEFCON to a randomly selected European conference venue without fundamentally transforming it into something that is no longer the DEFCON we know and love.
To put it another way, your suggestion and incomprehension underscores that you understand DEFCON as a conference. An event where people talking at halls of other people is the main thing that matters. I'm trying to communicate that it is a convention and cultural touchstone enabled by the unique confluence of laws in Nevada and the willingness of casinos to cooperate with wealthy groups.
It's very easy to suggest that an event be moved somewhere else. Why not move Jeremy Corbyn's next rally to, I dunno, Canada? There are halls for rent there too! It's perhaps more subtle to understand that there are other things than bare physical requirements that tie an event and a place together.
Because Jeremy Corbyn is a politician whose constituency is in the UK. The just makes DEFCON sound parochial
> Lockpicks are another - the UK does not smile on them.
Yet locksmiths in the UK routinely carry them.
You seem to be trying to paint a picture of Vegas being free, and Europe being oppressive. There are plenty of things that are legal in parts of Europe that are not in the USA. What you have really succeeded in doing is painting a picture that DEFCON is so much about guns that you would not trade the guns for anything.
You're exactly right! His events are tied to a place. Perhaps DEFCON is a convention whose primary constituency is in North America in the same way that CCC is a convention whose primary constituency is in continental Europe.
> Yet locksmiths in the UK routinely carry them.
Because they're licensed for such. Random people are subject to arrest for doing the same thing. Which would mean that nearly everyone who visits the lockpick village would be subject to arrest and a goodly number of other attendees. We're talking about thousands of people, arrested for having funny-shaped little bits of metal.
What I'm saying is that you are possessed of the wonderful opportunity to come to a greater understanding of what DEFCON - and its community - are. It's perhaps possible that you may stand to benefit by perhaps seeking first to understand the thing you wish others to consider changes to.
Because this is what fear has done to the world. As much as I hate the status quo, caving in and not going when I've done nothing wrong only serves to perpetuate it.