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Comment by martin8412 | Hacker News Reader

That's completely irrelevant. It's not the job of the SEC to guide companies/people on what constitutes securities. Their job is to bring enforcement action if they believe the law is being broken.

If you want legal advice, get a lawyer. If you don't want an expensive court case to determine who is in the right, don't do business in areas without established case law.

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> It's not the job of the SEC to guide companies/people on what constitutes securities

Which government agency fulfills that role?

The judiciary. See the Howey test.

I guess the judiciary system will eventually rule on what is legal / not legal via a legal contest, but courts are not actively informing and guiding American companies on what the rules are.

Seems like there should be an agency that does? Furthermore, the SEC does seem to fulfill some of this role, ie. registering securities.

> but courts are not actively informing and guiding American companies on what the rules are.

Isn't this what lawyers are for?

Guess that's how the world works then; do something until the government sues you, go to court and set precedent. Seems a bit inefficient. Or maybe its the most efficient path after all.

USA was doing very well before FTC was created in 1914. In fact, most of American wealth that the US has been riding on, was accumulated before then. Airplane, Ford Model T, etc where all created before then.

Airplane was released in 1980.

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