Hacker News Reader

Comment by d0vs | Hacker News Reader

Am I the only one thinking that this is censorship too?

edit: censorship

View on HN

YC demo day is a private event hosted by a private organization. As such, YC has the right to determine the kind of entities that are allowed to be present at the event.
And YC / pg have determined that the kind of companies that would support SOPA are unlikely to make good investors in YC portfolio companies. No censorship, just a business decision.

Curious: Aren't ISPs and payment processing companies also private organizations? Are DNS "name servers"?
I don't disagree with PG's stance here and I don't think it is censorship, but you must admit that these are "just business decisions" for these parties as well (possibly even Congress)

The term for large ISPs and DNS systems is "common carriers". They are qualitatively different than a Y Combinator.

I think you might be wrong.
According to wikipedia: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_carrier
Internet Service Providers have argued against being classified as a "common carrier" and, so far, have managed to do so [...] Because ISPs are no longer prohibited from discriminating among different types of content under common carrier law [...]

That's maybe an interesting discussion in its own right, but I think the fact that they're "arguing against" it means it was at least a relevant example.
A much better example would have been "The Power Company", a formally-regulated utility. The phone, electric, or gas utility is not allowed to refuse you service simply because they don't like your politics or your business judgment the way a Y Combinator can.

Sure, the difference is that if Congress mandates it, it IS censorship. Until then, it's just a bunch of different people advocating censorship and a bunch of other people opposing it. For "business" reasons.
I could use emotional terms like "freedom" and "tyranny", but in the end my opposition to censorship and advocacy for freedom come down to personal interest. I like to think it would be better for everyone else too, but yeah, I advocate for freedom because I WANT freedom. It's just business.

Censorship involves speech or other forms of communication. Withholding an invite or discouraging of certain investors in not censorship.

I disagree with that since the reasons are not purely political. PG believes that supporting SOPA shows a very flawed understanding of how the Internet works. Since many YC companies are web-based or rely on the Internet in other ways I think this makes sense. You can't knowledgeably invest in something with a very flawed understanding of it.

Censorship is using legal force, physically if necessary to shut you up. It isn't simply refusing to provide you a platform.

I wish I could downvote

Yes.
This is not censoring, this is capitalism in action.

Censuring for sure. Censoring? No.

No, I think the appropriate word would be "advocacy."

Reply on news.ycombinator.com