Dumb and dumber: Silly legal case of the day, from midiamin

[unixronin]

Dumb:  An Internet dating site whose gimmick is conducting background checks on the service's members wants a law passed mandating that all other dating or other "social referral service" sites that do not do so be required to put a banner at the top of every page ans every email, stating in no less than 12-point type: "WARNING: WE HAVE NOT CONDUCTED A FELONY-CONVICTION SEARCH OR FBI SEARCH ON THIS INDIVIDUAL.", on pain of fines that could easily run into millions of dollars per day.

Dumber:  California, Texas, Virginia and Michigan are actually buying into the idea.  That kind of inane, sheeplike stupidity is what we've come to expect from the California state legislature, but Texas?  Virginia?

The voice of sanity:

"They're trying to legislate their business model, and quite frankly it's a weak business model," says Match.com spokeswoman Kristin Kelly.  It would be just as easy to argue that True.com should be required to post labels on each page: "WARNING: TRUE.COM'S BACKGROUND SEARCHES WILL NOT IDENTIFY CRIMINALS USING FAKE NAMES, AND THE COST TO RUN THEM MAY BE PASSED ON TO YOU."

Yo, buddy, this may come as a surprise to you, but the US legal system, contrary to your apparent belief, does not exist for the purpose of nobbling your already-established competitors and giving you an unfair business advantage over them so that you can take over the market they've built.

Comments

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

WARNING: TRUE.COM'S BACKGROUND SEARCHES WILL NOT IDENTIFY CRIMINALS USING FAKE NAMES, AND THE COST TO RUN THEM MAY BE PASSED ON TO YOU.

Bwhaahaha!

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

Although, I must say, ossuarian has insisted that I be required to give the disclaimer, "I am just doing this for my own amusement" whenever I try to set two people up together.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

And here I never knew you were a yenta ....... :)

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

That's because I've never known you when you were single. ;)

I have a weakness for pattern matching people. But, like a genie, I also want to show people that the things they say they want don't always work for them.

And, mainly, I want to be amused.

None of which makes for good dating.

[unixronin.livejournal.com]

I've learned a lot more about what I don't want than what I do. This is probably not entirely a good thing, though it's better than nothing.
Unfortunately, I have a bad history of basically stumbling by accident into relationships that don't work for me in the long run, because I've never had any real clue how to seek out a relationship that's what I want. (And of course the minor problem of never having being really sure what I actually want.) cymrullewes and I occasionally argue about how much of them not working in the long run is me. I tend to think more of it is my fault than she does.

[ilcylic.livejournal.com]

Yeah, but he's not trying to protect a business model. He's just trying to protect the innocent victims of your cruel amusements. ;)

-Ogre

[elegantelbow.livejournal.com]

It's true, it's true.

*sigh*