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MacRumors Giveaways... Why are they only open to U.S. residents?

iConnected said:
As I suspected, not a response to my suggestion. But thanks for your interest in my post.
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It was a response. It states clearly that at the current time, MR are not looking at entertaining any sort of international giveaway, targeted or otherwise.

This answer covers your question as well. It was a complete answer that answered you specific question even before you'd asked it.
 
djgamble said:
Just do it IMO. Honestly... they'd save all this fuss by just saying 'US address required' instead of making an inaccurate statement of how they think the law operates. It just wastes time.
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Pretty sure by using the terminology they do, that it covers them from a legal standpoint.

In the eyes of the law, specific words matter.
 
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It is not illegal to do give-aways, international users just need to use forwarding services.
 
46576C9E-3644-4C0A-A12A-6177D22131A9.png

This is all o get displayed in the widget… all I did was follow the YouTube account via the link ?
 
Nermal said:
Speaking as a regular member, not as staff...

I'm not sure why a US-based site (MacRumors) needs to comply with, say, NZ law in the first place. The site is hosted and run from outside NZ so surely NZ law doesn't apply.

Although NZ may be a bit of a special case since NZ Post has services that are explicitly designed to let you get "US only" deliveries in NZ...
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Maybe they do, maybe they don't. Any nation has the ability to create regulations regarding the business of their citizens. They question is, how enforceable are they in practice? There's no business benefit to MacRumors to hire expensive legal counsel to figure this out for them.
 
TiggrToo said:
It was a response. It states clearly that at the current time, MR are not looking at entertaining any sort of international giveaway, targeted or otherwise.

This answer covers your question as well. It was a complete answer that answered you specific question even before you'd asked it.
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LOL, just saw this. Sorry for the delay in replying. And Happy New Year, etc.

It was neither a "response", nor posted anywhere near to the [then] "current time", nor did it even remotely state what you claim it did.

A response is provided in response to something, not before it. And addresses the specific suggestion, not something that someone may inaccurately infer was covered by it.

It certainly didn't address my specific suggestion. Namely, providing additional giveaways on a country-specific, non-US basis.

Thus making it a very practical and helpful suggestion (in respect of the time and effort required) as a way to also reward internationally-based members, I hoped. And still do.

Again, though, thank you your for continued interest.
 
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I am not sure that whether it will be approved for the Non US Citizens or not. but, by the face of it, We should not accept much :(
 
Question: what is the real hesitation here? That MR will be sued in a country like Venezuela and somehow the U.S. would authorization foreign possession of this web site and its assets? Seems like the refusal to extend this worldwide is a solution in search of a real problem.
 
theheadguy said:
Question: what is the real hesitation here? That MR will be sued in a country like Venezuela and somehow the U.S. would authorization foreign possession of this web site and its assets? Seems like the refusal to extend this worldwide is a solution in search of a real problem.
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Or maybe just that MR wants to respect the laws of other countries?
 
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theheadguy said:
Question: what is the real hesitation here? That MR will be sued in a country like Venezuela and somehow the U.S. would authorization foreign possession of this web site and its assets?
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Is your main consideration in deciding whether or not to commit a crime simply just a question of whether or not you'll get caught and/or punished? Is anything that you can get away with doing automatically a good and reasonable idea to you?
 
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theheadguy said:
Question: what is the real hesitation here? That MR will be sued in a country like Venezuela and somehow the U.S. would authorization foreign possession of this web site and its assets? Seems like the refusal to extend this worldwide is a solution in search of a real problem.
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Question: do you have any experience or expertise to offer this conversation or are you just here to ask the same question that has been asked and answered multiple times in this 20 page thread?
 
theheadguy said:
Question: what is the real hesitation here? That MR will be sued in a country like Venezuela and somehow the U.S. would authorization foreign possession of this web site and its assets? Seems like the refusal to extend this worldwide is a solution in search of a real problem.
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Exactly.

The 'legal' excuse isn't from a lawyer. It's from a google search.

Real reason is that MR doesn't wanna pay international shipping.
 
NightFox said:
Or maybe just that MR wants to respect the laws of other countries?
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In short, if you're not in a country, you're not bound by its laws, or expected to know what they are in the first place. The threshold of jurisdiction has to be met before one can start arguing whether a law has been broken.

Not wanting to make this about Assange, but the only reason why there's a chance he'll be tried in a US court is that there's a five eyes treaty that allows people who've committed terrorism-related offences to be deported. Unless you've done something that's received that sorta attention (hint: it's a pretty high threshold) then you're 100% innocent until proven guilty (as with those who can be deported) but you have the further protection that there's no basis for the said country to prove otherwise because you're not one of them, and weren't in their jurisdiction.

As lawyers we're not gatekeepers of 'the law' and 'the law' is certainly not a black and white list of wrongs/rights. Thus, we advise on potential risks. I mean have you ever used Uber? Imagine if they did a web search and said 'we do not operate outside the USA because you would need a taxi license to do so'. I get that non-lawyers think that's what we do, but we're a bit smarter than that ;)
 
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djgamble said:
Exactly.

The 'legal' excuse isn't from a lawyer. It's from a google search.

Real reason is that MR doesn't wanna pay international shipping.
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MR has the right to decide if it doesn't want to pay International shipping or keep up with the extra paperwork. MR doesn't owe any member here anything. Too many people seem to think they are entitled if not demanding of others just because.
 
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djgamble said:
As lawyers we're not gatekeepers of 'the law' and 'the law' is certainly not a black and white list of wrongs/rights. Thus, we advise on potential risks.
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This again, ok:

MR: Hi Mr Lawyer, can we do our giveaways worldwide even though we don't know all the laws of every country.
Lawyer: Let me look into it.
MR: How much will that cost me?
Lawyer: Only a few hours at $500/hr.

Weeks go by.......

Lawyer: The risk to you in minimal.
MR: Ok, our members will be happy.

Time goes by......

MR: Hi Mr Lawyer, we got a legal notice to "blah blah blah" in Iran because one of our members won a giveaway for a $25 watchband.
Lawyer: No problem, this won't amount to anything, I'll just need a $10,000 retainer to get started.

The "complexities of international law" defense sounds like a much better way to go.
 
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djgamble said:
Exactly.

The 'legal' excuse isn't from a lawyer. It's from a google search.

Real reason is that MR doesn't wanna pay international shipping.
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If you're going to state apparently unfounded assumptions like that as fact, at least offer some evidence to back it up otherwise people will just assume it's all in your head. And maybe also counter the actual fact that the competitions are open to UK residents, for whom international shipping is going to be just as expensive as a whole range of other countries.
 
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djgamble said:
As lawyers we're not gatekeepers of 'the law' and 'the law' is certainly not a black and white list of wrongs/rights. Thus, we advise on potential risks. I mean have you ever used Uber? Imagine if they did a web search and said 'we do not operate outside the USA because you would need a taxi license to do so'. I get that non-lawyers think that's what we do, but we're a bit smarter than that ;)
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Not sure if I'm misunderstanding your point here, but this is exactly what Uber has had to do in many countries; go through licensing requirements. Strong-arming, especially by US-based multinationals, tends to get short shrift in the rest of the World.
 
arn said:
Does any other comparable site run international giveaways? It's just too complicated legally for us to run them in multiple countries.

Even Engadget, who is owned by AOL and had their terms written up as "AOL Tech Giveaways", limits their giveaways to U.S./Canada. http://www.engadget.com/official-giveaways-rules/ -



arn
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I understand what you are saying. However, there are US citizens who are Service Members and overseas contractors who would love to participate but can't because we aren't in the US at that moment. Maybe open it up by ID.com military checking system so we can enjoy the giveaways.
 
BCARLLUVSM1 said:
I understand what you are saying. However, there are US citizens who are Service Members and overseas contractors who would love to participate but can't because we aren't in the US at that moment. Maybe open it up by ID.com military checking system so we can enjoy the giveaways.
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The issue is due to individual countries, not citizens so regardless if your a US/Canadian citizen living/working abroad, military or not, the giveaways are still governed by the laws of the country you live/work in. So if you happen to be living/working in a country where MR deems it's laws on giveaways to be to complicated/restrictive it's basically tough luck.
 
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