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Comment by jstrong | Hacker News Reader

I don't think if I had $2 billion in proceeds from a piracy website I would choose to reside in Germany.

While the people behind this website were indeed caught in Germany, providers of similar popular streaming piracy sites (kinox.to and movie4k.to) have/had warrants out for them internationally as well as house searches all over Europe. They really don't joke around when it comes to copyright infringement.

You'd need both: law enforcement that looks the other way when it comes to the crimes you commit and good infrastructure. Countries with one or the other are easy to find, but both?

You can rent infrastructure from a provider from a country you don't reside in.

Beyond what other wrote: A polish and a german citizen. Website was taken down in 2013, but they were imprisoned in 2019. Maybe they thought they had got away with it?

sure better than residing in the US which hands out huge sentences like Halloween candy .

Very true, the guy who hacked into Valve and leaked HL2 got 2 years probation in Germany.

https://www.svg.com/899802/the-real-reason-valve-wanted-to-o...

The only thing with you do not f*k around in Germany is taxes. For the rest, the fines and sentences are a joke.

This one is also questionable in a country that allows you to buy a Porsche with cash, and which in general has its capital full cash only casinos and bars.

But yes, if you play by the book, you definitely don't want to mess with the Finanzamt.

There's a planned limit making sales above 10k Euro in cash illegal, afaik.

> you definitely don't want to mess with the Finanzamt.

*as a nonaffluent individual.

> allows you to buy a Porsche with cash

What's wrong with that?

It's well-known that the Italian mobsters are coming to Germany to buy cars with their drug money with nobody noticing. For example.

Not a good enough reason to place arbitrary limits on the use of cash. People should be free to buy a car with cash.

It seems like a very law-abiding, low-crime place. Are fines and sentences ineffective?

The rate of violent crimes against people is low, but higher that you may feel by reading the newspapers. There is lots of crime, but typically not violent against other people. Having you home break-in is relatively common.

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