Could someone here tell me what part of the Constitution authorizes the FBI to investigate local corruption, and what part of the Constitution allows for prosecution in Federal Courts.?
There is grave danger in the citizens allowing the Feds to railroad local politicians. This is part of the end of federalism..
I expect you're right that the federal government has no constitutional jurisdiction to prosecute corrupt local officials. It might not be such a bad thing, though, if state law enforcement were likewise empowered to investigate corruption at the federal level. Ed Jew's case notwithstanding, I think the FBI usually tends to do more good than harm when investigating state and local corruption in government. Certainly I'd much rather have the agency going after corrupt politicians and government employees than doing many of the other things it does, such as spying on dissident groups, targeting online gambling* and porn, engaging in witch hunts against "sexual predators," helping cover up situations like the Oklahoma City Bombing that could embarrass the Feds, etc.
Love & Liberty,
<<< starchild >>>
Could someone here tell me what part of the Constitution authorizes the FBI to investigate local corruption, and what part of the Constitution allows for prosecution in Federal Courts.?
There is grave danger in the citizens allowing the Feds to railroad local politicians. This is part of the end of federalism..
.
*It seems the Feds have already taken an interest in Second Life. I predict they will seek to heavily control it or shut it down before too long; hopefully by that time it will be popular enough to withstand the assault:
FBI probes Second Life gambling
Tue Apr 3, 2007 2:04pm PDT
By Adam Reuters
SECOND LIFE, April 3 (Reuters) - The FBI has visited casinos in Second Life at the invitation of Linden Lab, but federal law enforcement officials have not yet taken an official stance on virtual gambling.
“We have invited the FBI several times to take a look around in Second Life and raise any concerns they would like, and we know of at least one instance that Federal agents did look around in a virtual casino,” said Ginsu Yoon, until recently Linden Lab’s general counsel and currently vice president for business affairs. “We have specifically requested that a US Attorney give us guidance on virtual gaming activity in SL, but this hasn’t resulted in clear rules yet.”
The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US Attorney’s Office for Northern California declined to comment.
Hundreds of casinos offering poker, slot machines and blackjack can be found in Second Life. While the virtual world’s decentralized nature makes it difficult to estimate the total size of the gambling industry, the three largest poker casinos are earning profits of US$1,500 each per month, according to casino owners and industry watchers. Growth is estimated to be about 30 percent a month.
The surge in the Second Life gambling industry coincides with a crackdown in the real world by the U.S. government, which has arrested executives from offshore gambling Web sites.
Most lawyers agree that placing bets with Linden dollars violates U.S. anti-gambling statutes, which require that “something of value” be wagered. But the degree of Linden Lab’s responsibility, and the likelihood of a crackdown by law enforcement officials, is far from certain.
“That’s the risk — we have a set of unknowns and we don’t know how they’re going to play out,” said Brent Britton, an attorney specializing in emergent technology at the law firm Squire, Sanders & Dempsey.
Game developers such as Raph Koster, who is developing a Second Life rival called Areae, have warned that Linden Lab’s policy of making the Linden dollar freely exchangeable for “real” money will eventually lead to a crackdown.
“SL is running an elevated level of risk compared to a similar business that doesn’t run a monetary exchange,” Britton said. He added that the company could theoretically face criminal sanctions under the 1970 Illegal Gambling Business Act or the Unlawful Internet Gambling Enforcement Act.
The latter law, passed last year, takes aim at credit card companies and other electronic funds transfers that enable Internet gambling.
“What they did was go after the processors, and made it a crime to process payments that relate to online gambling sites — Linden could potentially be held as the same sort of processor,” said Sean Kane, a lawyer at Drakeford & Kane who has studied the legal ramifications of virtual worlds.
“If you’re buying money on the Lindex and utilizing it for gambling purposes, Linden could have a much higher level of responsibility,” he added. “If they would be found in violation, that’s difficult to say, but I can see a much stronger case being made.”
People running gambling businesses in Second Life are adopting a wait-and-see attitude, but admit there is a chance of a crackdown.
“If the Department of Justice says shut it down, then you shut it down,” said Xess Dix, editor of SLPokerplayer.com and a consultant to virtual casinos. “Or Linden will shut it down. Let’s do it honestly and ethically until Linden says we can’t do it anymore.”
Dix declined to disclose his real-life name.
Linden Lab’s terms of service ban any illegal activity, but the company itself is not sure whether in-world gambling crosses the line.
“It’s not always clear to us whether a 3D simulation of a casino is the same thing as a casino, legally speaking - and it’s not clear to the law enforcement authorities we have asked,” Ginsu Yoon said in an email interview.
Even if the law were clear, he said the company would have no way to monitor or prevent in-world gambling, much as law enforcement cannot police every neighborhood poker game or office basketball pool.
“There are millions of registered accounts and tens of millions of different objects in Second Life, there is simply no way for us to monitor content prospectively even if we wanted to,” Yoon said. “That would be a harder task than pre-monitoring all email sent through Yahoo Mail or Gmail, and no one expects those services to prevent all possible use of email for illegal activity.”
Yoon’s claim echoes the unsuccessful arguments of peer-to-peer filing sharing networks that they could not track or block the transmission of copyrighted content, according to Kane.
“In the Napster and Grokster cases, the courts … looked at it and said, ‘You set up a platform that has been used for infringing purposes.’” Kane said. “Linden Lab has set up a platform that allows gambling to occur. They’re not doing anything to promote it, but they’re not putting the kibosh on it either.”
(Click here to read more about Second Life’s poker entrepreneurs)
(Additional reporting by Eric Reuters)
The feds were talking, the other day, about taxing the
actual "virtual currency" earned within this virtual
world -- a truly surreal prospect. One wonders if,
given the mismanagement of the US dollar, whether
"Linden dollars" will be worth more than US dollars in
the near future!
Cheers,
Brian
--- Starchild <sfdreamer@...> wrote:
I expect you're right that the federal government
has no
constitutional jurisdiction to prosecute corrupt
local officials. It
might not be such a bad thing, though, if state law
enforcement were
likewise empowered to investigate corruption at the
federal level. Ed
Jew's case notwithstanding, I think the FBI usually
tends to do more
good than harm when investigating state and local
corruption in
government. Certainly I'd much rather have the
agency going after
corrupt politicians and government employees than
doing many of the
other things it does, such as spying on dissident
groups, targeting
online gambling* and porn, engaging in witch hunts
against "sexual
predators," helping cover up situations like the
Oklahoma City
Bombing that could embarrass the Feds, etc.Love & Liberty,
<<< starchild >>>> Could someone here tell me what part of the
Constitution authorizes
> the FBI to investigate local corruption, and what
part of the
> Constitution allows for prosecution in Federal
Courts.?
> There is grave danger in the citizens allowing the
Feds to railroad
> local politicians. This is part of the end of
federalism..
> .
>*It seems the Feds have already taken an interest in
Second Life. I
predict they will seek to heavily control it or shut
it down before
too long; hopefully by that time it will be popular
enough to
withstand the assault:FBI probes Second Life gambling
Tue Apr 3, 2007 2:04pm PDT
By Adam ReutersSECOND LIFE, April 3 (Reuters) - The FBI has visited
casinos in
Second Life at the invitation of Linden Lab, but
federal law
enforcement officials have not yet taken an official
stance on
virtual gambling.�We have invited the FBI several times to take a
look around in
Second Life and raise any concerns they would like,
and we know of at
least one instance that Federal agents did look
around in a virtual
casino,� said Ginsu Yoon, until recently Linden
Lab�s general counsel
and currently vice president for business affairs.
�We have
specifically requested that a US Attorney give us
guidance on virtual
gaming activity in SL, but this hasn�t resulted in
clear rules yet.�The Federal Bureau of Investigation and the US
Attorney�s Office for
Northern California declined to comment.Hundreds of casinos offering poker, slot machines
and blackjack can
be found in Second Life. While the virtual world�s
decentralized
nature makes it difficult to estimate the total size
of the gambling
industry, the three largest poker casinos are
earning profits of US
$1,500 each per month, according to casino owners
and industry
watchers. Growth is estimated to be about 30 percent
a month.The surge in the Second Life gambling industry
coincides with a
crackdown in the real world by the U.S. government,
which has
arrested executives from offshore gambling Web
sites.Most lawyers agree that placing bets with Linden
dollars violates
U.S. anti-gambling statutes, which require that
�something of value�
be wagered. But the degree of Linden Lab�s
responsibility, and the
likelihood of a crackdown by law enforcement
officials, is far from
certain.�That�s the risk � we have a set of unknowns and we
don�t know how
they�re going to play out,� said Brent Britton, an
attorney
specializing in emergent technology at the law firm
Squire, Sanders &
Dempsey.Game developers such as Raph Koster, who is
developing a Second Life
rival called Areae, have warned that Linden Lab�s
policy of making
the Linden dollar freely exchangeable for �real�
money will
eventually lead to a crackdown.�SL is running an elevated level of risk compared to
a similar
business that doesn�t run a monetary exchange,�
Britton said. He
added that the company could theoretically face
criminal sanctions
under the 1970 Illegal Gambling Business Act or the
Unlawful Internet
Gambling Enforcement Act.The latter law, passed last year, takes aim at
credit card companies
and other electronic funds transfers that enable
Internet gambling.�What they did was go after the processors, and made
it a crime to
process payments that relate to online gambling
sites � Linden could
potentially be held as the same sort of processor,�
said Sean Kane, a
lawyer at Drakeford & Kane who has studied the legal
ramifications of
virtual worlds.�If you�re buying money on the Lindex and utilizing
it for gambling
purposes, Linden could have a much higher level of
responsibility,�
he added. �If they would be found in violation,
that�s difficult to
say, but I can see a much stronger case being made.�People running gambling businesses in Second Life
are adopting a wait-
and-see attitude, but admit there is a chance of a
crackdown.�If the Department of Justice says shut it down,
then you shut it
down,� said Xess Dix, editor of SLPokerplayer.com
and a consultant to
virtual casinos. �Or Linden will shut it down. Let�s
do it honestly
and ethically until Linden says we can�t do it
anymore.�Dix declined to disclose his real-life name.
Linden Lab�s terms of service ban any illegal
activity, but the
company itself is not sure whether in-world gambling
crosses the line.�It�s not always clear to us whether a 3D simulation
of a casino is
the same thing as a casino, legally speaking - and
it�s not clear to
the law enforcement authorities we have asked,�
Ginsu Yoon said in an
email interview.Even if the law were clear, he said the company
would have no way to
monitor or prevent in-world gambling, much as law
enforcement cannot
police every neighborhood poker game or office
basketball pool.�There are millions of registered accounts and tens
of millions of
different objects in Second Life, there is simply no
way for us to
=== message truncated ===