Ask HN: would this project make me a terrorist in the law enforcements' eyes? | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: would this project make me a terrorist in the law enforcements' eyes?

5 pointsjoering24 comments

I believe SOPA went down in the toilet thanks to the publicity the issue got. If we all wouldnt oppose, SOPA would be shoved in our throats and we would be told it taste like a well-made steak.

I was thinking about web-development project where it would be easier for people to come together and oppose something they are against in an organized and sequenced way. I think web, as a tool, would be a great medium!

Let's think about SOPA example. You would import ways to contact with senators, corporation representatives, etc, people that are against. Then everyone whos willing to join the chain to protest again would sign up. System would assign a block of time to each user when and where to call and complain about the issue at stake. Once the use is done, he would flag it in the system so next person can be assigned.

Now, if this would get enough traction, could LE shut it down and consider me a terrorist??

I think its a great idea and I would love to see something like this... Whenever you challenge people in power, however, its inevitable that they are going to fight back, provided your challenge is strong enough for them to take notice and potentially feel threatened. I would hope our country hasn't become that much of a police state yet to where they would immediately label you as a terrorist etc (but sometimes I worry it may already be this way), however you never really know what is going to happen and the potential for some corrupt charges to be brought against you would always be there. The way I see it, if you are going to make apps like this, either make sure you stay anonymous, so they can't find you (and it takes considerable effort to do this) or be prepared to make connections, get donors, etc and be prepared for a legal fight at some point. Hopefully a day will come when this isn't the case but I don't think we're there yet and it seems this is a point in history where the old establishment is feeling particularly threatened so just make sure you know what you are getting into before you put too much effort into the project.

No, in fact people are already building tools like this especially special interest groups. I imagine it could be quite lucrative to sell a framework that does this. Though I'd note IANAL. Thus this isn't legal advice.

That said, such a tool isn't unethical. Setting aside the fact it's also legal as best i can tell (which you seemed not to know) you should consider the following:

If something, generally speaking, is not unethical, and indeed adds value to the world without causing meaningful harm to anyone, should you avoid doing it merely because the government could disapprove?

Another thing I thought of would that something like this may be best as an open source / distributed project to where there isn't a central point they can shutdown / target, I'm not sure how viable it is, however, to make something like this work without centralized servers (sort of like torrents, I guess)

Who knows, but I'd say very doubtful. (Not a lawyer)

See you have this THING...it's called the Bill of Rights. They kind of guarantee some other THINGS. It might look like the Bill of Rights has been trampled on but believe me, the core parts haven't, and won't be.

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