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SOPA and the credit card

5 points by mcbaby ↗ HN
I noticed both Visa and MasterCard Worldwide support SOPA, but AMEX has announced its opposition to the bill. While I think most people here agree the bill is a terrible piece of legislature, why do you think Visa and MasterCard support, but AMEX opposes it?

5 comments

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gasull
Pure speculation:

AmEx probably sees that SOPA will be bad for the economy. A bad economy means less profits.

Visa and MasterCard... maybe, just maybe, they understand that Bitcoin or some other cryptocurrency might succeed in the future, and SOPA might help them acuse Bitcoin websites of "counterfeiting" money.

freejack
Probably for similar reasons to Godaddy supporting it and smaller registrars not. The larger players likely view it as much easier to absorb the impacts of the bill as a cost of doing business that puts the squeeze on the smaller players. Call me a cynic, but i think this is the game that Visa and Godaddy are playing. Problem is, its a remarkably short-sighted view and has the potential to shrink the size of the pie.
krongoth
Short-sighted, but it does ends up with them having a larger proportion of the pie, which I suppose makes them feel safer.

Actually, come to think of it, that is short-sighted, because if no one can compete straight with them, they'll be more likely to try sideways strategies. Not necessarily virtual currency, but something equally different.

gasull
I think GoDaddy is outright wrong. SOPA/PIPA won't benefit GoDaddy at all. It will actually hurt them because less startups means less people registering their domain, and therefore less profits for GoDaddy.
pasbesoin
Companies really like things that limit their liability. SOPA/PIPA is one of the largest, federally-mandated wavers of liability we're likely to see in the next little bit.

These companies want to process payments and collect their fees. The transactions in question are minuscule compared to their overall market. Someone comes along and tells them: Just do it this way, and you'll never end up in court. What do you think they are going to do/support?

(Plus, they / senior management are "in bed with" and/or effectively the same as senior management of many of the other SOPA/PIPA supporters.)