JotForm was taken offline by order of the Secret Service (1, 2.) The rumor is that the site was taken down due to a fraud investigation, effectively shuttering a small private business and blocking legitimate access from over 2 million users. There was no court order. The site was eventually restored after this whole fiasco went public, with no explanation or apology from either GoDaddy or the SS. It's fortunate that JotForm had a large enough following to inspire this kind of public outcry, but not every company the US government tries to silence is so lucky - like those small music blogs.

The environment for web startups is truly toxic right now. At this point, if you run a site for user-generated content, you are pretty much a moron if you use any US-based TLD, registrar, or host, because recent history has shown repeatedly that your site will get shut down the second some faceless appointed official decides they're too busy to send you a polite e-mail first.

I've said it before, and I'll say it again: complete regulatory capture of an entire government. IP banana republic. Liberty has four boxes, people.

Not that it matters, but it's 2 million forms, not users.

The fact that this has happened should hopefully spur some changes in how this is even made possible.

I've seen absolutely zero sign that the US government is interested in supporting the growth of either small businesses or new media. So, while I certainly hope things change for the better, I have absolutely no faith that they will.

Having zero faith in **** changing gets really old after a while. I used to be like that, but I realized after a while that it's really depressing for no reason.

My lack of faith in the freedom of the American people to change their government is a relatively new thing of which I am not yet tired.

Dunno what this means, so I'm gonna assume it's something to do with 4-square.

-I was thinking tic tac toe at first, but that's 9 boxes...

The true state of affairs in this country has only recently hit me. I will not tire of the topic of which you speak until it's gone.

If you want liberty, then vote for Ron Paul.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Four_boxes_of_liberty

But yeah, sucks.

you do know that Ron Paul only wants to make it so that the FEDERAL government can't doesnt have any real power. He doesn't care if the state governments make oppressive laws.

We already have a Ron Paul thread, you two go share a bed.

On topic: in b4 my flickr™gets deleted

Ah, that's clever.



Nah, if you want anarchy and a white supremacist in the white house, vote for Ron Paul.

-I'm gonna remember that four boxes thing, it's cute ^_^