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A comment on TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse. Parent comment

Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:41AM (#35368075)
You're not being put in jail for 20 years[1] for using a VPN (eg. for torrenting). You're being put in jail for 20 years because you violated other provisions of the law and tried to evade using VPNs. It's not any different than you getting put in jail for 20 years for violating some anti-terror legislation, and using VPNs to pull that off.

[1] realistically not, given federal sentencing guidelines, see: https://www.popehat.com/2013/02/05/crime-whale-sushi-sentenc...

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by duringmath on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:53AM (#35368169)
Having 20 year sentence on the books for something that isn't rape or murder is barbaric in my opinion.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:54AM (#35368175)
Did you miss the footnote?
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by duringmath on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:59AM (#35368213)
Nope. Didn't even click it.

Prosecutors use the arduous court system to force their victims to accept pleas.

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:03AM (#35368245)
That might be true, but it still doesn't change the fact that you're unlikely to get 20 years for accessing tiktok over VPN. You might get some sort of prison sentence (or none, too lazy to look up the exact guidelines), but saying 20 years is pure hyperbole.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by matheusmoreira on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:11AM (#35368313)
> saying 20 years is pure hyperbole

The law says "up to 20 years". Therefore, american citizens can be imprisoned for 20 years over this bullshit. Don't minimize it.

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by duringmath on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:08AM (#35368289)
It says "20 years" in the damn bill.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:09AM (#35368298)
Clearly you're not willing to read my footnote a few comments ago and as a result we're talking in circles. Consider this my last reply to you.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by concordDance on Thursday March 30, 2023 @02:00AM (#35368655)
He's doing an apple's to apples comparison in his head: Rapists get a headline sentence of 20 years, so VPN users getting the same sentence is insane.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by wonnage on Thursday March 30, 2023 @03:05AM (#35369117)
No you see, you guys gotta read his footnote about a wholly unrelated topic
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by ifdefdebug on Thursday March 30, 2023 @06:53AM (#35370734)
> unlikely to get 20 years ...

20 years for being a teenager and watching shitty vlogs and memes? "unlikely" doesn't cut it, anything less than "impossible" should be unacceptable.

> You might get some sort of prison

Again: WHAT? go to prison for watching shitty vlogs and memes? You guys are really reaching Saudi Arabia levels with this law, how can you be so complacent with that?

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by ChrisRR on Thursday March 30, 2023 @05:30AM (#35370125)
The footnote is irrelevant, the guidance says you shouldn't, but the law says you legally can.

The latter is enforceable, the former is just a recommendation

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by matheusmoreira on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:01AM (#35368228)
I can already see the copyright monopolists lobbying the government to classify infringement as intellectual terrorism or something.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:06AM (#35368272)
Again, the problem there wouldn't be that the law is banning VPNs, it's having harsh punishment for copyright infringement. That's a perfectly serviceable argument. Don't say they're putting people in jail for using VPNs, that would just be dishonest.

The same applies for the tiktok law. Go out and argue how the government is banning you from using tiktok under threat of prison sentence or whatever. Don't make the unsupported argument that the proposed law is going to punish you for using VPNs for unrelated reasons (eg. torrenting).

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by JacobThreeThree on Thursday March 30, 2023 @12:58AM (#35368206)
>violating some anti-terror legislation

Like the Patriot act?

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by gruez on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:01AM (#35368229)
That part of the argument can easily be substituted with something less controversial, like sanctions or wire fraud laws.
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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by JacobThreeThree on Thursday March 30, 2023 @01:08AM (#35368287)
>wire fraud laws

The famously overbroad laws that get abused by prosecutors in cases like Aaron Schwartz facing 35 years for downloading files.

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Re:TikTok Ban Bill Is Patriot Act 2.0 Trojan Horse by westmeal on Thursday March 30, 2023 @08:57AM (#35371937)
Rip aaron
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