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Comment by basisword

4 months ago

It would be much easier for me to run a small business if I didn't have to worry about the intricacies of tax law or how the various company structures affect my liability - but that's life. If you want to do various things in life, you may have certain responsibilities. Again - I don't like this particular legislation, but if your hobby is a website where others can post content you have a responsibility that the content shouldn't be illegal or harmful to others. If you can't deal with those responsibilities you can't run the website. It's no different than being required to follow health & safety regulations in an IRL business, even if it's just my 'hobby'.

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basisword

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jwalton  4 months ago

> but if your hobby is a website where others can post content you have a responsibility that the content shouldn't be illegal or harmful to others

I’m not entirely sure I agree with this sentiment. It certainly isn’t true from a legal standpoint in America, where section 230 explicitly absolves you from any such responsibility. I also don’t think most of the objections to the OSA center around a need to remove child pornography, but instead the fact that you are forced to employ technological measures that don’t currently exist to remove child pornography. All of this is a little besides the point though because…

> If you can't deal with those responsibilities you can't run the website.

I absolutely can. If the law is unreasonable, I can block all users from the host country, and keep running my website. Which is exactly what Lobsters and a lot of other people are choosing to do.

Analemma_  4 months ago

Yes, I could do that, or I could block the only country which is imposing these burdens on me, keep my website running as it always has been, and call it a day. It’s a pretty easy choice.

ss64  4 months ago

You can still be fined for 'failing to comply' with the legislation even if no objectionable content has been posted. To be in compliance there is a whole list of things you need to do, some of which are expensive.