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Comment by Eisenstein | Hacker News Reader

Sorry but law enforcement entities do not have a mandate for, nor are they required to, tell you specifically whether an act is expressly legal or illegal if you ask them.

Call a police department and ask them if you are allowed to bury your recently deceased relative on your property. They will tell you to get a lawyer. If they feel like arresting you for illegal disposal of human remains you can't use the defense 'but I asked them and they wouldn't tell me'.

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I think there is a very important difference here, specifically that the police department is not going around deciding what is and isn't legal but the SEC is deciding what is and isn't a security.

The police department absolutely exercise discretion over what they choose to arrest people for and what they don't.

The SEC is not deciding what is legal or not, they're deciding whether or not to bring an enforcement action. The court decides if that is legal.

IDK, you can ask polish tax authority for a individual interpretation of law and it's binding in court.

The US IRS also has this; a “Private Letter Ruling”. https://www.irs.gov/newsroom/understanding-irs-guidance-a-br...

Come on. The SEC is also a regulatory agency. Your police department isn’t.

This changes what, exactly? Are you suggesting that the government act as a free lawyer to everyone asking?

Example: 'Would it be fraud if I bought an Amazon gift card with my credit card and sold it for cash since that would be a cash advance but it went through as a regular purchase?'

Would you expect that the FTC answer that question for you in a binding way?

In a rational world I would absolutely expect the authorities that bind me to answer basic questions about following the rules.

You want to hand judicial authority to regulatory agencies?

I don't think I said that. You seem to be setting up a(nother) false dichotomy here as if there can only be one end of the spectrum or the other, with no grey area or nuance in-between.

What is a grey area for 'makes a binding ruling regarding interpretation of law'?

I'm sorry, but I'm not willing to answer that for you in a binding way.

I love it when people refuse to follow the logical conclusion of their own argument and then act like they are being clever when they stonewall with that logical conclusion without realizing what they just did.

You have fallen into the trap of thinking that government bodies tasked with such things should be providing you a customer service -- but they are providing society with a customer service and you are treated as a road would be treated by the government, not as a driver would be treated.

Note: by 'you' I mean if you were in the position of a regulated entity.

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