And anyone facilitating financial transactions.
Call it "The Protection of Lawful Commerce Act".
Banks and other financial institutions are defined by law and are given protection from competition in the form of steep legal barriers for entry.
I propose that in exchange for this protection we get something for a change and demand that they must process any transaction which is legal to transact.
To deny a transaction requires they call law enforcement over the illegal activity and make the burden for false reporting onerous. Like CEO goes to prison onerous.
Include a section that makes auction sites accept anything legal or nothing.
Going to need someone better versed in legalese to work the wording, of course.
If anyone complains, remind them that they didn't see anything wrong with forcing a baker to make a cake for a wedding he had religious objections to.
A lot of what you're objecting to is due to laws put in place to save us from the scourge of illegal drugs (how's that working out, by the way?) or due to online auction/retail sites' terror of being named in a lawsuit. If some idiot went on a shooting rampage and it turned out he'd got his gun through Ebay, or had paid for it by Paypal, how long do you think it'd be before some lawyer convinced the victims that suing the big "deep pockets" e-tailer would be a good way to rake in some big money?
ReplyDeleteI know it's about the drug war. Said so here before. Good thing there's no illegal drugs available anywhere or it wouldn't be worth it... Oh. Wait.
DeleteI'm perfectly willing to absolve the payment processors from responsibility for facilitating a legal sale. Mostly because we already absolve car dealers and banks from someone driving off the lot and heading to the bar before driving drunk and killing someone.
Nobody talks seriously about forcing banks to not process payment for cars or drinks, do they?