Quote Originally Posted by basschick View Post
chip, i agree that if you convince a jury that an fbi agent said these things, you are very very unlikely to be found guilty. but not that many people can afford the HUGE amount it would cost to pay a legal defense team enough to get them that far in a trial.
We are in complete agreement. My point was that unless Justice specifically wants to go after site so-and-so.com, they are going to go after somebody else if they run into a situation where the site owner was basically in compliance and relied on what an agent or Justice official said, simply because Justice knows that it would be hard to sell a jury on convicting someone who was making a good faith attempt to comply. They will most likely pass on prosecuting that case and go after a different one that's an easier sell. The "low hanging fruit" theory.

But if they want you, they will charge you and make it so painful that you will take a deal... and they can do that no matter how perfect your records are if they really want you, because the regulations are so Byzantine that they are nearly impossible to comply with 100%.