From: Ryan M Gill (rmgill@mindspring.com)
Date: Fri Jan 17 2003 - 09:11:23 PST
At 11:43 AM -0500 1/17/03, Paul H. Anderson wrote:
>As far as I know, other nations (not the United States) have extreme
>penalties against buying or selling Nazi memorabilia (or I suppose being a
>party to such a sale). eBay can't fight the laws there, nor can they
>readily keep people from specific nations from accessing eBay. So, they
>cave in by prohibiting them.
Germany also ban's speech relating to Nazi Party activities and
gatherings. Lots of things are Verboten in Germany. That concept
isn't supposed to fly here. I have 2 direct relatives that risked
death during WWII as I'm sure many of you do here as well. However,
the basic tenant of this nation's believes are that no matter how
distasteful the beliefs are, they are generally protected under
constitutional provisions.
>Guns, unfortunately, probably fall victim to the same basic problem.
>
>I don't mean to defend eBay, but in this case, from a legal and technical
>perspective, allowing trading of guns or nazi stuff would put their
>business at great peril. I'm sure politics plays into it, as well.
Yep, the internet spans all borders, so you need to work according to
the least common denominator right? Well, where do you stop? France
requires all web sites hosted there to be in French. Does that me
that in order to even tangentially cater to a french person looking
at my MV site, I have to put it in French...I've got a better chance
of eating frogs...
>I think of it as a "dumbing down" effect - meet the lowest common
>denominator of the common nations that scare eBay lawyers the most.
Dumbing down is always a bad idea. Especially when it threatens the
hobby. "Sorry, that vehicle was used for war, you don't need that."
>I wonder, though, how much water this line of reasoning holds, as someone
>just noted about the Japanese items being sold (dunno if Japan restricts
>sale/buying of Japanese war memorabilia).
I don't know. The swords are controlled items iirc. The firearms
surely are. That leaves personal gear/uniforms and vehicles. I don't
know how much Japan had left after WWII, but I suspect is wasn't
much. Also, given how they recycle anything not useful or nailed
down, there probably isn't a single Type95 tank rusting in a field on
any of the Home islands.
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