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Comment by gruez | Hacker News Reader

>The manufacturer calls it an "ESD tester" yet there is an "anonymous" version available

plausible deniability. selling devices specifically for committing crimes is illegal. that's why all the bong shops say it's "for tobacco use only".

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If you use that word again, we'll have to ask you to leave. They're water pipes.

I like to consume my tobacco via a steamroller or gravity water pipe. So refreshing.

Totally off-topic question to this thread, but what's the reason for being kicked out of those stores for saying "bong"? I would have guessed that as long as employees don't use the term, it's fine for the company for the customers to suggest what they'll actually be using it for.

Going to throw out a guess and say it's because selling you an item after you called it a bong is admitting that it's indeed a bong.

Ah, that makes sense, question answered.

My second question is that if bongs and water pipes are the same thing, why does the law distinguish their purpose by their name? It seems like given "I want to buy a water pipe for smoking the marijuana" and "I want a bong to smoke tobacco", the second should be legal to request, not both.

I'm pretty sure it's CYA more than anything. The DEA is very aggressive and raids like it's going out of style

_bong_ is considered drug slang, water pipe is not.

intent determines if a thing is illegal. If you intend to use that bong for weed it’s pariphinalia and a felony, if you intend to use it for sheesha it’s fine.

if you intend to use that power tool or crowbar to break into a house it’s “possession of burgular tools” and a felony, if you’re a contractor there to install some drywall it’s not.

Because you might be a police agent trying to make them admit that they are knowingly selling something illegal.

Can we get something a bit more technical to give it a more refined and scholarly name? Perhaps Hydrostatic glassware.

Head shop I used to go to in the mid-90s kept their "water pipes" in a locked back room. You couldn't even buy one unless they'd deemed you "hip to it, man" or whatever.

Mine sold wicker furniture in the front, but the back was water pipe city.

> plausible deniability.

Why would that be necessary?

Jackhammers are tools to destroy pavement. But nobody sells jackhammers as "ground strength testing tools".

These are tools to destroy computers. Both are completely legal as long as you are not destroying someone else's property without permission.

That highly depends on the jurisdiction you're operating in / selling to.

While I'm not aware if anybody has ever been convicted for weirdly defined laws like that we for example have a "hacking paragraph" in Germany that outlaws software for the sole purpose of computer crimes. I'd imagine the UK has similar legal areas in lieu of their recent "kitchen knives are dangerous weapons, sometimes" controversy. It's not that hard to imagine somebody going after the manufacturer of such hardware and that blurb (or the ever famous "for educational purposes only") give them something to reasonably distance themselves from a user's actions.

It's easy to come up with a legitimate use case for destroying pavement, not so much for USB ports. Testing the ESD resistance of computer equipment on the other hand might be a legit use case.

Secure destruction of equipment you're discarding is a valid use case. Depends on how much of the board actually gets fried.

Everyone recognizes that jackhammers are necessary for the built environment that supports our civilization. The understanding that “hacking tools” and the like are necessary for our online civilization is less common.

> that's why all the bong shops say it's "for tobacco use only"

Unless you're in a state that's legalized it.

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