Looks like the DOJ did send a letter:

https://www.vanityfair.com/news/story/elon-musk-doj-letter-paying-people-to-vote-is-a-crime

In a letter sent days after he announced the sweepstakes, Robert Heberle, the head of the DOJ’s election crimes branch, told Musk that offering anything of monetary value to influence voters violates federal law. … The letter reportedly “did not specify any immediate legal action” but “did spell out the penalties for breaking US voting laws, including possible imprisonment of up to five years.”

If the consequence of violating a law is a fine, that law is essentially optional for the rich; if the consequences of violating a law is prison time, but the penalties can be avoided through (expensive) legal protection, those laws are also optional for the rich. The rich are hard to prosecute under the law, so it’s not surprising when the law is primarily enforced on the rest of us (esp. on the most vulnerable of us).

An easy example: the IRS audits the poor much more than the wealthy, partially because their attempts to target the wealthy was met with legal difficulties.

“I don’t think it would be likely that he would suffer such a serious fine,” Hasen said of Musk. “Although, if he was warned that this is illegal activity and continued to do it, I think that would create a different kind of situation.”

“I don’t think it would be likely that he would suffer such a serious fine,” Hasen said of Musk. “Although, if he was warned that this is illegal activity and continued to do it, I think that would create a different kind of situation.”

Yeah, though supposedly SEO could actually penalize articles for something like this, the SEO requirements keep changing but I bet there is a balancing act between keeping SEO happy and keeping up your ad impressions.

Articles are often made intentionally too long (ever notice recipes that force you to scroll through loads of irrelevant copy about the ingredients before you can get to the ingredients list and directions at the bottom?), this probably has to do with advertisements which will fire off when you scroll far enough down the page, it counts like an additional page view and the site makes more money.

exactly; there will always be piracy as long as piracy is needed, a post-piracy world is a utopia, even in the worst dystopia people find ways to “pirate”

thanks for this info, I was wondering why PIA isn’t recommended anymore