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Comment on Do you actually own anything digital?

When it comes to the US government at least, there are 4th Amendment protections in place, so no, your property can’t be seized “for any reason or no reason at all”.

Theft is a thing, but it’s random and you have the right to defend yourself in your own home. You also aren’t at risk for losing EVERYTHING. Not in the way you are if your digital library license gets revoked.

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AlataOrange@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
If a cop can take your property with no consequences and you will be arrested or killed if you defend yourself and your property, then what the law says doesn’t matter as the defacto state of reality isn’t concerned with such petty things as laws.

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doingthestuff@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
You clearly don’t know about the state of seizure laws in the US over the last years. Having cash is reason enough for them to seize it and they don’t have to suspect you of a crime. They can simply find the cash as suspicious and take it and you have to prove the legality of your cash or property at your own cost/expense to get it back.

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- jordanlund@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
  You clearly don’t understand the status of civil forfeiture in my state, but it’s cool, we only changed it 23 years ago…
  
  www.osbar.org/publications/…/forfeiture.html
  
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  - doingthestuff@lemmy.world ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
    You said the Fourth Amendment, not your state law. The fourth amendment should protect from this but historically it hasn’t. One good state doesn’t change that.
    
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uriel238@lemmy.blahaj.zone ⁨9⁩ ⁨months⁩ ago
The fourth amendment of the Constitution of the United States does give us protection against unreasonable search and seizure, but the unreasonable is its weak link and as such your protections have been gutted by SCOTUS since the 1990s and the War on Drugs.

If law enforcement seizes everything you own via asset forfeiture, or kills you in cold blood when you are neither armed nor resisting, your estate can sue to get your belongings back or compensation for wrongful death, but a ruling against law enforcement in your favor is the exception in the US, not the rule.

Avoid engagement with US law enforcement. Ever. And if you must deal with them, do not expect any right to be respected. Under no circumstances should you call law enforcement to respond to a situation.

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