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Comment by fastball | Hacker News Reader

If you commit all your fraud via Starlink, could you make the argument that you didn't do it over wire?

You can try almost anything in a courtroom, whether something’s likely to work is wholly another matter. When in doubt, legal processes tend to try to defer to precedent and prior case law.

My guess is they would see a parallel between other also-not-really-telegraph-wire technologies on which others were convicted of wire fraud, and a Starlink connection.

This means it probably wouldn’t legally be treated as appreciably different from any other current physical or wireless connection.

It includes "radio".

Ah, but what about the lasers?

High frequency radio signals?

That is certainly not possible, because there is a wire between Starlink router and Starlink antenna! :)

There's definitely a wire somewhere in the mix. Probably more than one!

Hmm smoke singnals, semaphores and International Code of Signals.

I think the correct way is to pick something really old... Now your co-conspirators likely will screw it up.

The court will argue that even your so-called wireless device has wires inside it.

I thought the term "wire fraud" meant "wire" in the sense of "telegraph". That is, it's fraud relying on telecommunications, which could include landline telephone, satellite, microwave, radio or internet. Have I got that wrong?

You are correct. It was a bad joke on my part.

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