[Billman]

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Off-topic a bit - but does anyone remember Napster?

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I think the biggest difference is that Napster offered IP for free. The UIGEA specifically acts to stop the transfer of funds used to wager. Party Poker is still open to US players who want to play for play money. If the desire to play were the only criteria being used then nothing changed in the online poker world. But since governments have traditionally had a very keen interest in the banking systems for as long as they've been around, stopping payments is a lot easier than stopping Johnny from downloading some music file over the internet.