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Court agrees with EFF: Utah's VPN law demands a technical impossibility

802 points · 405 comments · hn_acker

  1. SoftTalker · · focus · HN ↗
    > platforms are left with an impossible choice: completely block all VPN traffic nationwide or withdraw access from Utah entirely

    Is it even possible to reliably know that a connection is from a VPN? Anyone can proxy through a random hosting provider.

    1. happyPersonR · · focus · HN ↗
      Requires the vpn provider to snitch and possible tag the ip frames or http frames lol

      Folks would just host their own vpns various places and this would be pointless ….

      1. unglaublich · · focus · HN ↗
        It's all just an effort to control the 90%.
        1. pkilgore · · focus · HN ↗
          It lawfare against porn. They don't want these companies to exist. They want it to be impossible to comply with the law to shut them down.
          1. pimeys · · focus · HN ↗
            Why are people so upset about porn? It's probably still the biggest portion of internet traffic. Kind of like human nature, don't you think?
            1. lokar · · focus · HN ↗
              Assuming you are really asking, the two largest objections:

              - religious/cultural. My beliefs forbid this, it makes people bad/worse in some hard-to-define way, so no one should be allowed to do it. Sometimes with an emphasis that the sellers are luring good people into sin/ruin.

              - it harms women. Many of the participants are trafficked or coerced in some way (and further abused). The profits from the industry encourage more of this. It “warps” the mind of men who use it, leading them to mistreat and abuse women.

              I see elements of truth in all these, but IMO they are ultimately not compelling, prohibition is unworkable and unduly infringes on willing participants and consumers.

              1. failbuffer · · focus · HN ↗
                I would add:

                - natalism. Some people worry about inverted demographic pyramids. They want to see more births, so they need more horny guys trying to form relationships instead of being content single. Sometimes there is a racist angle.

                - industry. Anything that's "too fun" for young people disincentives education or working.

                - addiction. (But people get addicted to shopping or eating dirt too.)

                Some arguments against outlawing it include:

                - free speech.

                - a sizeable fraction of the population wants it to exist.

                - better option for economically impoverished women than prostitution.

                - societies that suppress it don't really seem better for women, or anyone.

                - prohibition of a widely demanded product creates crime (and nothing is easier to smuggle than pure information).

                1. autoexec · · focus · HN ↗

                  [dead]

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