United States vs. Visa and MC
 

I just found this and think it is quite informative if anyone is interested in reading in regards to the Visa/MC Anti Trust case which goes to trial next year.

Legal stuff:

http://www.usdoj.gov/atr/cases/indx57.htm

"Count II focused on Visa's Bylaw 2.10(e) and MasterCard's Competitive Programs Policy (CPP) (together, the "exclusionary rules," Op. 329 (SPA165)). These rules permit member banks to issue credit and charge cards on both the Visa and MasterCard networks,(2) but prohibit them from issuing cards on the only two other major general purpose credit card networks, which are not controlled by banks: American Express (Amex) and Discover. Op. 329 (SPA165). Plaintiff contended that the exclusionary rules restrained competition among credit card networks and credit card issuers, and thereby harmed consumers."

that's what Marine's calle 'good training' !

Visa wants to be (and already is to some degree) a monopoly, and they want to determine what people can buy and sell based on content.

I said this before, if Microsoft tried to ban all Republican websites from being viewed in Windows, the government would step in and threaten to kick their ass so hard that they would back off in a heart beat.

Visa threatens to ban any legal constitutionally protected adult content that they don't personally like and no one does a fucking thing.

This is very true. But don't blame the Republicans. Think the Democrats would care if Microsoft shut down hate sites and anti-abortion sites? Hardly.

The government in general goes after whatever their party finds more important. Sad, but true.

I did not mean to imply that I was blaming Republicans. Last time I said "Catholic" or something. As an aside, the Democratic party is full of such pussy politicians right now that if Microsoft did block Democrat sites, the Republicans would love it and Democratic politicians probably wouldn't even fight back. That's another thread, though. :)

My point was that Visa is only getting away with this because no one ever wants to stand up for porn, even though it's protected by the constitution just like everything else. Outside forces won't stand up for us, and the players with big money in this industry don't want to rock the boat.

The online adult industry is young. We have yet to see our big free speech fighters emerge. There have been some people who have fought and won, but no high profile national cases that catch the American people's attention.

You're absolutely right. Based on the Republican ideology, they should be fighting for US. Instead, they're blinded by the religious interests of their constituents.