Quote from: rjk on February 15, 2012, 06:50:53 PM

Quote from: bahatassafus on February 15, 2012, 11:08:06 AM

The bitcoin community is capable and creative in so many ways, but when it comes to the legal field and the interfaces with real world entities, it seems like we accept everything as a force of nature. Currency is all about trust and no trust can be built if the second biggest exchange can go down so easily. Since bitcoin was born there were countless incidents of illegal confiscation of funds by banks, Paypal and others. None of them was supported by court order or any official regulator. Entrepreneur and investors will avoid bitcoin as long as the legal cloud is hanging there. The bitcoin experiment is doomed if we won't be able to defend it legally and if we won't support each other in such cases.

The good news are: bitcoin, in most countries is perfectly ok and has a good legal case. Banks and other financial entities are not allowed to refuse bitcoin business just because they don't like it. In the open source spirit, lets join forces and resources.

What do you think is the right way to go about it?

Citation needed.

I'm not sure how it works in the US. In Israel, where i'm from, banks are regulated and can't refuse business without legal ground. About a month ago the regulator "released the banks from their duty to provide service for gambling sites" - http://www.yogonet.com/english/2012/01/11/israel-banks-can-refuse-to-handle-transactions-for-suspicious-websites
And take my word for it, Israel is not the most liberal country when it comes to human rights...
A quick search brings similar results for the UK and Canada.
http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/thereporters/robertpeston/2010/03/a_legal_right_to_a_bank_accoun.html
http://settlement.org/sys/faqs_detail.asp?faq_id=4000635
But, if it was that easy, i would not bring the subject up. The legal case should demonstrate the contradictions of such actions with Freedom of occupation the Bill of Rights etc.