The Government Cannot Outlaw Bitcoin, it's Impossible!

[cbeast]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

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[Rassah]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Certain types of pornography is illegal. There are more types in Canada than in US. US has outlawed books with those, and there are certain types of books that you can buy in US from Japan, but is illegal to poses in Canada.
I like the claim that government can outlaw anything. Especially if it's to "save the children," and it's very easy to see how Bitcoin can be targeted with that.

[twobits]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Did you bother to read previous posts?  Some printed materials are outlawed,  try and print dollars even in a book form.   Or to see them really stretch the existing laws, read about the recent Liberty dollar case.

[Bitman_Begins]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

can't machines photo-read now as well??

[cbeast]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Did you bother to read previous posts?  Some printed materials are outlawed,  try and print dollars even in a book form.   Or to see them really stretch the existing laws, read about the recent Liberty dollar case.

This has become the gubbermint iz gonna gets you thread.

[SmokeAndMirrors]

GOVERNMENT CAN DO WHATEVER IT WANTS

for real. unfortunately.

With that logic, so can ANYONE.

[Rassah]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Even better solution: Engrave your bitcoin key on a bullet! You can defend your bitcoin under the 2nd Amendment, and have another nifty way to transmit it over long distances

(I'm actually not a gun nut, nor even own a gun, but the "gubming gonna get you" comment made me think of this)

[Meatpile]

Sorry dude but "governments" have the massive wealth and power of much smarter minds than you and me.

For instance: If I was going to destroy bitcoin for the US government: I would take all of the domains associated with this forum as well as bitcoin sources (already done against the poker sites) Then I would start up 100 to 500 different "Ixcoin" type equivalents. So one of them creates coins at 50 per block, 49 per block, 200 per block... etc etc.

Why would anyone ever buy back into or FIND the original bitcoin? How would anyone choose which blockchain to start "trusting" and exchanging and mining?

Ixcoin is a very important thing: It as an example that anyone can make a blockchain. And if everyone DID make a blockchain... they all become worthless. How could we ever choose one to get behind?

Bitcoins open source and incredible versatility, is also a huge weakness. It only has value if there is only ONE blockchain and everyone uses it together.

And this is just my method, a government would be much more cruel and untraceable.

[Litt]

America is a nation of the people, by the people. If your president are going to ban bitcoin, just go to the street and vote another candidate who are for bitcoin.

but what if they get shot? 

[bitrebel]

Bitcoin transactions will be added to the taxcode at some point.

It already is in most countries...

Please cite your evidence for this, or I will assume you are bluffing. Show me where bitcoins are added to a country's tax code.

They would fall either under the barter or the capital gains codes.

It cannot be. It has to be tied to something, and it's it's own currency and value changes daily.

And yet it is.    Call up the IRS and ask them if using a different currency makes things untaxable.   How much to you want to bet on the answer?

http://www.irs.gov/businesses/small/article/0,,id=113437,00.html for example shows they want taxes dollars or not on exchanges.

I call it a currency, loosely, but legally, it's NOT a currency, so the IRS cannot deal with it as such.

[bitrebel]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Certain types of pornography is illegal. There are more types in Canada than in US. US has outlawed books with those, and there are certain types of books that you can buy in US from Japan, but is illegal to poses in Canada.
I like the claim that government can outlaw anything. Especially if it's to "save the children," and it's very easy to see how Bitcoin can be targeted with that.

Pornography is illegal because it depicts actual acts taking place between people. That photo is a tangible item and can be traced and destroyed. Pornography is not illegal anyways, only child porn, and that means there has been some child victim. But to make an image of a child from scratch and show it being molested, is not against the law. So, in order to enforce child porn laws in the US, there has to have been a child victim and that photo stems from such an illegal act, so the photo can be held to be illegal as well.

How this can be applied to bitcoin is nonsensical.

[bitrebel]

Bitcoin is like the virus that infects the mainframe. In order to rid the mainframe of the virus, you must destroy the entire system.

Bitcoin rides the back of the beast, with a whip and heels with spurs.

Bitcoin is so closely tied into the basic foundation of our lives, through computers and data and privacy, that it's like a cancer that hides inside the cells and causes the production of antibodies. You have to literally kill the organ to rid the tumor.

Since Bitcoin is NOT a currency, it cannot be legislated like one. In other words, no currency laws can be applied to bitcoin. Bitcoin is the transfer of information privately, and nothing more and nothing less.

Free Speech, Computers, and Free Association, along with doing business altogether, would have to be outlawed in order to outlaw bitcoins.

[Rassah]

Bitcoins can be printed on paper, copied, bound, copyrighted, and self-published. One could then tear out pages and transmit them. Shall we outlaw books?

Certain types of pornography is illegal. There are more types in Canada than in US. US has outlawed books with those, and there are certain types of books that you can buy in US from Japan, but is illegal to poses in Canada.
I like the claim that government can outlaw anything. Especially if it's to "save the children," and it's very easy to see how Bitcoin can be targeted with that.

Pornography is illegal because it depicts actual acts taking place between people. That photo is a tangible item and can be traced and destroyed. Pornography is not illegal anyways, only child porn, and that means there has been some child victim. But to make an image of a child from scratch and show it being molested, is not against the law. So, in order to enforce child porn laws in the US, there has to have been a child victim and that photo stems from such an illegal act, so the photo can be held to be illegal as well.

How this can be applied to bitcoin is nonsensical.

Aaaactually, even drawn images are still in legal limbo in US, and the books I was talking about are certain types of manga (all drawn) that may depict a mature relationship between underage people. All drawn, no one harmed, legally questionable in US, and illegal in Canadia.

[caston]

America is a nation of the  people corporations, by the people corporations. If your president are going to ban bitcoin, just go to the street and vote another candidate who are for bitcoin.

There, fixed that for you!

[error]

Government doesn't give rights and freedoms. They exist regardless of what government, if any, might exist. Government either violates them or doesn't violate them. It's amazing that people STILL misunderstand this.

[casascius]

I have sent 0.1 BTC to the following passphrase:

"We the People of the United States, in Order to form a more perfect Union, establish Justice, insure domestic Tranquility, provide for the common defence, promote the general Welfare, and secure the Blessings of Liberty to ourselves and our Posterity, do ordain and establish this Constitution for the United States of America."

(which corresponds to Bitcoin address 12tw77jR3XcRusMuwHAAKUmwGUoKoWtAHT)

Let's see someone make possession or conveying this passphrase illegal.

[FlipPro]

You can't outlaw math.

[bitrebel]

You can't outlaw math.

Exactly!

[Kyt Dotson]

A government such as the United States Federal and state governments might find it difficult to outlaw something like bitcoin due to its distrusted nature and it's connection to expression; but the government might choose to make it a regulated commodity trade and then refuse to license it. Although this would push it underground, and people would then trade it offshore and the like, it would simply mean that legitimate businesses couldn't use it in the US.

At least it cannot fall afoul of the US Mint's territory like Liberty Dollar did. I looked up the Liberty Dollar because it made me think of an event where an obvious non-US currency came under fire by the US Federal Government.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liberty_Dollar#Federal_Government_response

Other countries, however, especially dictatorships will probably just declare transmitting bitcoins illegal and that will be that; it'll be contraband and while they won't be able to stop its use, they can certainly do evil things to those caught using it.

I don't see why the US government would care. To me, in a legal arena, bitcoins look like a limited commodity traded for value by social contract; they're a currency only in that people use them as a means of proposing value and they can be exchanged for USD between contracting parties. It doesn't pretend to be USD legal tender and only contracted parties need accept it as payment. Surely, it could be used for tax evasion or investment; but bitcoins themselves are not USD and don't become income until exchanged.

I'm sure someone with a lot more legal know-how will correct the hell out of me on that; but with Bitcoin being as obscure as it is at the moment, it's not going to attract a lot of attention. If and when it does, the EFF will probably be itching for a fight -- especially after they stopped taking donations in Bitcoin after citing that they expected that they didn't want a conflict of interest in a legal battle.

[FlipPro]

I dont understand why some find it so hard to believe that the government wouldn't just embrace it and use it's unmatched hashing power to once again regain the trust of the entire world.