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|8.24.05 @ 4:36PM|#
That was my favorite article in the entire magazine. More reviews of this nature, please. Loved the review on the DuPont Network book as well.
dude|8.24.05 @ 5:58PM|#
where have all the comments gone? surely someone has had something to say in one of the past 20 posts...
dude|8.24.05 @ 6:00PM|#
Er..strike that comment
Warren|8.24.05 @ 6:00PM|#
The current issue of Cannabis Culture has an excellent article (unfortunately not currently online) on the rights you forfeit when you sign up for a PayPal account. It details how PayPal is it's own judicial system, acting as cop, judge, and jury, sometimes freezing assets over perfectly legal purchases.
Cannabis Culture is published by Marc Emery. As most of you know Marc made millions of dollars selling marijuana seeds, and spent it all, mostly on his political activism aimed at ending pot prohibition. Last month he, and two of his colleagues, were arrested on request of the DEA and his seed business shut down. He is out on bail and fighting extradition. Under US law he qualifies for the Death penalty for the amount of seeds he (proudly admits) shipped into the US, and is certainly facing life without parole. He is raising a defense fund through donations. Go here to contribute.
|8.24.05 @ 6:01PM|#
err nevermind!
The Wine Commonsewer|8.24.05 @ 6:35PM|#
Excellent piece, no doubt about it.
|8.24.05 @ 7:28PM|#
Yeah. And man, do I miss those heady early days of PayPal.
|8.24.05 @ 7:34PM|#
That�s a far cry from the libertarian vision founders Peter Thiel and Max Levchin originally had for PayPal, an online payment service that enables account holders to send money to anyone in the world with an e-mail address. Thiel and Levchin had hoped PayPal would grow to become an extra-governmental system of currency,
In the book�s first chapter, Jackson recalls a speech Thiel gave to Confinnity employees, just a few days after he began work, in which he described his hopes for PayPal to become a borderless private currency. He saw PayPal facilitating trade in currency for anyone with an Internet connection by enabling an instant transfer of funds from insecure currencies to more stable ones, such as U.S. dollars. Thiel explained to his young staff how governments had historically robbed their own citizens through inflation and currency devaluation. The very rich could always protect themselves by investing offshore. It�s the poor and middle class, Thiel explained, who get screwed. �PayPal will give citizens worldwide more direct control over their currencies than they ever had before,� Thiel predicted. �It will be nearly impossible for corrupt governments to steal wealth from their people through their old means because if they try the people will switch to dollars or pounds or yen, in effect dumping the worthless local currency for something more secure.�
So is anyone out there going to take up the mantle of this original vision? While PayPal certainly has a lock on ebay and a hugely known brand name, I would think that there is enough discontent with them, and enough of a potential market out there, for an alternative to succeed.
I'm within spitting distance of my limit with them, and I'll be darned if I'm giving them my bank account info. At least my main account that has any money in it ;) I find that to be a highly annoying limitation- it doesn't matter how long I've been an honest user, after a certain amount the credit card isn't good enough anymore.
|8.24.05 @ 7:44PM|#
Wow, I had no idea about Paypal. I'm certainly not setting up an account with them now. Damn the government.
Sykes|8.24.05 @ 8:49PM|#
"So is anyone out there going to take up the mantle of this original vision?"
E-Gold has, though I think their approach is a little too ideologically driven (and insufficiently business driven) to make too much headway. It's harder to get funds out of the account than it should be, but part of their libertarian charm (and I do find it charming) is that they don't hold any fiat currency, so one needs to use a forex provider to get money out.
I've had many of the same frustrations with Paypal, actually. They froze our business account for selling tobacco a few months ago (we sell pipes, cigars, pipe tobacco and such, online). Fortunately, we didn't have much in there, but I've written it off-- in order to unfreeze the account, I have to never again sell tobacco products through our websites.
Some Porn--err, Erotica Guy|8.24.05 @ 9:08PM|#
Throw in a few other things: one unreported bit of regulation late last year made Paypal start reporting all transactions to the Feds (if you sign up for the money market account... so far). It might've been ebay complying of its own volition, but I think there was legislation.
E-Gold's not a bad idea, but just try signing up for it--need physical copies of lots of paperwork to prove you're not a Russian mobster... defeats the purpose.
Firepay looked interesting, but the transaction costs are very, very high.
I placed a $20 bet with an offshore gambling house last spring (O's to take the Wildcard at 15-1... thanks, Raffy!) and they sent me through a Korean provider of "currency units"... the idea's still being worked on, but nothing dominates, and I suspect the Feds'll crack down harder on anything that emerges. Hope the Europeans are still working on this. Or maybe the Israelis.
Sad.
Ebay (ecommerce on training wheels) is the new AOL.
/Apart from raising objections on a couple of faily extreme vintage images, Paypal's never had a problem with my materials, but nobody wants to get into a censorship battle over Henry Miller, so YRMV.
//And I use a separate paypal account for that site.
|8.25.05 @ 2:26AM|#
I'm proud to say I've screwed PayPal several times. Against their TOS, I've paid for several firearms from online auctions, which were legally transfered through an FFL. PayPal can bite me.
The secret is to never keep any money in your account. Transfer it, and get it the hell out of there. PayPay is a full of shit, but useful, idiot.
|8.25.05 @ 4:35AM|#
I didn't realize they'd turned the company into such a force for evil. I guess I should take the 20 bucks I've had sitting there out asap.
|8.25.05 @ 3:54PM|#
There is an alternative:
www.neteller.com
The choice of internet gamblers and prescription drug customers worldwide.
|8.25.05 @ 6:11PM|#
Soylent Online Payment is made of PayPal!
PAAAAAAAAYYYPAAALLLLLLLLL!
Java Games|8.26.05 @ 8:13PM|#
I don't like PayPal... and search alternative.