this post was submitted on 15 Sep 2025
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No Stupid Questions

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[–] Tramort@programming.dev 40 points 12 hours ago

child pornography would fit this description

[–] jbrjake@lemmy.world 39 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

When the first DVD cracking util was released, DeCSS, it violated the DMCA and people were getting sued and threatened with felonies for sharing it. Very quickly people figured out loopholes to make it an archivable creative work, like putting it on tshirts and encoding it as a prime number: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Illegal_prime

[–] kersploosh@sh.itjust.works 11 points 12 hours ago

I remember an mp3 going around where a guy turned it into a song, complete with the chorus, "I don't like the DMCA."

[–] floquant@lemmy.dbzer0.com 6 points 11 hours ago

Damn, I came to post about the pirate pride flag but you beat me to it

[–] corsicanguppy@lemmy.ca 4 points 8 hours ago

I had a green DeCSS shirt. It was awesome. I ditched it while coming over the border.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 33 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

09 F9 11 02 9D 74 E3 5B D8 41 56 C5 63 56 88 C0

A cryptographic key for Blu-Rays. The MPAA used to send out C&Ds and DMCA takedowns left and right to hide this code.

[–] howrar@lemmy.ca 14 points 7 hours ago

I remember when this Streisanded hard on Digg. Good times.

[–] jordanlund@lemmy.world 32 points 13 hours ago (1 children)

For a while it was illegal to export Pretty Good Privacy, or PGP from the US.

FTP servers in the US removed it for fear of legal action.

So I imported it from a University in Scotland. 😉

https://www.openpgp.org/

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 14 points 12 hours ago (1 children)

Not just PGP, but any encryption strength above a certain level was considered "munitions" from a legal standpoint. Because of this, finding a windows Ssh client was a PITA for quite a while.

[–] Melvin_Ferd@lemmy.world 7 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

Wait does imply that other encryption is broken since what would it matter if you used encryption greater than something the government allowed you to

[–] neidu3@sh.itjust.works 8 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 9 hours ago) (1 children)

Nah, this was ages ago. I don't remember the exact encryption strength, but it was pretty low, even by yesteryear standards. This was a remnant from when cryptography was ruled by whichever government could find the biggest autistic savant.

[–] adespoton@lemmy.ca 4 points 5 hours ago

I believe the encryption restrictions were relaxed in 1998.

However, certification for import/export of nuclear weapons and other dangerous goods was still needed for strong encryption (such as phone SIM cards) as recently as 2006. To get on that list of people who could legally transport SIM cards not for personal use over the US border, you needed the same background check and government clearance as someone transporting enriched uranium.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 20 points 11 hours ago* (last edited 11 hours ago) (2 children)

Literally some of the 34 things Trump was convicted of has to do with this!

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 4 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

So it's illegal, but nothing comes of getting convicted. No actual consequences.

Got it.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 10 hours ago

Only if you have money and/or power, tho. If you're just some guy, you're 100℅ fucked.

[–] whimsy@lemmy.zip 1 points 1 hour ago

Oh interesting, should I look up Trunp rule 34 for more information on this?

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.zip 17 points 12 hours ago (2 children)

High level leaks of classified material is the first example that comes to mind. The raw Wikileaks data, for example, was widely accessible and easily found by anyone with a quick search, and yet possessing that material was technically illegal, because it was never declassified.

[–] eightpix@lemmy.world 9 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Julian Assange has something to say about this.

Edward Snowden has something to say about this.

Reality Winner has something to say about this.

Chelsea Manning has something to say about this.

Woodward and Bernstein had something to say about this.

[–] BertramDitore@lemmy.zip 10 points 10 hours ago

No doubt. It being illegal doesn’t mean it wasn’t morally justified and right in most cases. Just means it took more courage and personal risk to do the right thing.

[–] clay_pidgin@sh.itjust.works 2 points 8 hours ago

You've been banned from /r/warthunderforums

[–] DagwoodIII@piefed.social 16 points 10 hours ago

"Pornography" was illegal to own. Things like abortion information or anything mentioning homosexuality was pornographic.

[–] FriendOfDeSoto@startrek.website 12 points 11 hours ago

Having info on the heliocentric solar system could land you in a dungeon or worse back in the day.

[–] jrs100000@lemmy.world 12 points 9 hours ago (1 children)

War plans. Classified information in general will cause some trouble, but mostly for the person who leaked it. War plans, on the other hand, will be recovered by any means necessary, up to and including lethal force without warning.

[–] Hugin@lemmy.world 4 points 6 hours ago

Or accessing it if you have a security clearance. I'm not allowed the look at any of the documents Snowden leaked. Because even though they are easily obtained they have not been declasified. I don't have a need to know or the necessary SC.

[–] benignintervention@lemmy.world 11 points 12 hours ago (3 children)

In the US it's illegal to grow poppy if you know what it is

[–] shalafi@lemmy.world 6 points 10 hours ago

Only the opium poppy, Papaver somniferum. The rest are just fine.

[–] Kolanaki@pawb.social 6 points 11 hours ago (1 children)

They can't prove I know what it is tho. 😏

"What do you mean I had to know because I was making heroin? You mean my calming sleepy flower juice from those cool flowers I found?"

[–] krunklom@lemmy.zip 2 points 6 hours ago

You need to use a razor to bleed the poppies for their latex, which is opium.

I'd say if you're found with poppies that you've done this to then there's a very good chance you knew what you were doing.

[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

The little seeds on bagels?

[–] RFKJrsBrainworm@sh.itjust.works 1 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] Lost_My_Mind@lemmy.world 3 points 10 hours ago (2 children)

But.....why are bagel seeds illegal to grow? And why aren't bagel producers getting in legal trouble?

[–] Jarix@lemmy.world 2 points 5 hours ago

Similar to growing hemp instead of cannabis. Though I'm not that familiar with the specifics of different poppy strains

[–] modular950@lemmy.zip 1 points 7 hours ago

nice try! you can't prove that I know anything!

[–] Zwuzelmaus@feddit.org 10 points 7 hours ago

Instructions how to build a nuclear bomb.

They have been so very illegal during the very first years of the internet that the scanning of content by police and 3 letter agencies was invented especially because of that.

Then many people made fun of the fact, for example by putting fake hints into the footers of their e-mails or forum posts, and maybe this was the beginning of all memes.

[–] TheKracken@lemmy.world 9 points 11 hours ago

I'd say classified documents if you don't have the clearance and process to legally possess them

[–] supersquirrel@sopuli.xyz 8 points 12 hours ago

KEVIN Birmingham’s new book about the long censorship fight over James Joyce’s Ulysses braids eight or nine good stories into one mighty strand.

It’s about women’s rights and heroic female editors, the First World War, anarchism and modernism, tenderness and syphilis, moral panic and about the Lost Generation and the tent it pitched at Sylvia Beach’s Paris bookstore. It isolates a great love story, that of Joyce and Nora Barnacle, one that comes with a finger-burning side order of some of the most cheerfully filthy correspondence in literary history.

https://www.scotsman.com/arts-and-culture/the-battle-to-publish-james-joyces-ulysses-1531186

And what a quest it was. "Ulysses" was illegal to own in most of the English-speaking world for more than a decade. It was banned, burned, debated, smuggled, and finally legalized following a 1933 court ruling. In Birmingham’s highly readable and erudite book, he infuses this story with drama, reminding us that the right to express oneself can never be taken for granted.

Readers will quickly realize the immense scope of "The Most Dangerous Book." Modernism, obscenity, the power once held by postal authorities, vice squads, 19th century English law, Joyce’s sex life and health problems, The Lost Generation, early literary magazines, Wall Street lawyers, the suffrage movement, anarchy in America, and even the Enlightenment are all seamlessly woven into this most fascinating tapestry.

https://www.wbur.org/news/2014/06/13/kevin-birmingham-ulysses

[–] Mighty@lemmy.world 6 points 12 hours ago

So much. I mean that's what the book burning was all about. There's blacklisted authors. There's state secrets. It might be information that's legal only for certain people. I mean, if we're being pedantic, it's illegal for you to have information about me if I'm not giving it to you.

Under no circumstances should crabs be taught to read. There are consequences.

[–] bran_buckler@lemmy.world 5 points 7 hours ago (1 children)
[–] daggermoon@lemmy.world 1 points 1 hour ago

Rip Trevor Moore. He burned too bright for this world.