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Originally Posted by Mutt
people better get this through their heads finally - IF you are a US resident it doesn't matter what the hell you do, where you set up a company, where you host your websites, where your domain registration info may say you are based - you are subject to 2257 and every other law of the United States.
Your idea and the other hair brained schemes I've been reading aren't going to fool any government agency.
this is now a lottery for American webmasters - lottery of doom. Getting in compliance for most will be impossible unless they just dump whole servers.
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Though that IS the law, it is not practical. If a US webmasters lives abroad and is slick enough, they can make it very difficult for US inspectors (if there will be any) to do their job.
Who would you inspect... a guy living in Las Vegas who does everything in the USA, or the guy who lives in Amsterdam, banks in Panama, hosts in Canada, has Euro billing, and his office (where the records are at) is in Hong Kong. I'd bet all my money on the guy in Vegas. If for no other reason than for their budget they will stick to local inspections.
If questioned, the webmaster welcomes US government to come to Hong Kong to view the records. But according to the documents, there is to be NO warning. This means US inspectors will have to fly to Hong Kong and knock on his door. And this is even if Hong Kong would let them do such a thing. Do you really think they would send someone there to check them out? I doubt it. It's also not illegal for a US webmaster to have his records offshore so he could not get into trouble for doing this.
So yes, US law follows US citizens no matter where they go... but this is just not practical for US inspectors to glob trot in search of paperwork. There is the letter of the law, and then there is the spirit of the law. The US gov is simply not going to be able to force this on everyone, even though they would like to. Though they think the world is flat and the US is the only country that matters... that is simply not the case. It's a big playground out there.
