SourceHut moves business operations from US to Europe

Original Article ↗ Hacker News Discussion ↗

Change details and legal status

  • Commenters clarify the diff: the key change is updating the legal address to the Netherlands with Dutch business IDs; “European” and “regulations” in the TOS wording are additions, but US-law compliance remains.
  • Commit message (quoted in the thread) indicates a planned future removal of US-law compliance once the US entity is fully shut down; the initial attempt to drop it was rolled back as premature.

Motivations for moving to Europe

  • Several argue the move is primarily personal and logistical: the founder relocated to the Netherlands and runs physical infrastructure, so aligning the company’s jurisdiction is practical.
  • Others highlight ideological reasons from the founder’s own writing: discomfort with US capitalism, preference for stronger FOSS culture and data protection, and broader political/ethical alignment with Europe.
  • There is speculation (clearly labeled as such in the thread) about long‑term plans such as naturalization and distancing from US citizenship and taxation.

Netherlands, surveillance, and privacy

  • One line of discussion claims the Netherlands is “one of the most surveilled” societies; others strongly dispute this, citing comparative surveillance data and EU court limits on bulk surveillance.
  • Some point out that Dutch transparency (e.g., phone-tap reporting) may make it look worse on paper than more opaque states.
  • It’s noted that some “pre‑crime” style programs referenced in older articles have since been discontinued, illustrating the risk of relying on outdated sources.

Regulation vs trying to “escape” jurisdiction

  • A subthread argues for services that evade all regulation (pirate sites, crypto shell networks); others counter that:
    • You can sometimes technically evade laws, but you can’t choose consequences.
    • Any functioning society will regulate entities; tech is ultimately subordinate to states.
    • For many users, being under EU privacy law is a concrete selling point versus trusting extralegal setups.

US vs EU business climate

  • Some say the EU (and Netherlands) is cumbersome for incorporation compared to US LLCs and Delaware, suggesting places like Estonia/Romania might be more business‑friendly.
  • Others push back on claims that “startups are leaving Europe,” citing growing EU VC share and more unicorns, while acknowledging the US still dominates capital and mega‑scale outcomes.

European hosting and data locality

  • Multiple EU VPS providers are recommended (Hetzner, OVH, Scaleway, Netcup, Contabo, Leaseweb), with caveats about:
    • US ownership of some “EU” brands and exposure to US laws like the CLOUD Act.
    • Technical issues (I/O performance, patching, network speeds).
  • Commenters note rising demand—especially from German businesses—for data to be physically in Europe and foresee increasing regional data segregation, referencing India’s data‑locality rules as a precedent.
  • Some express a desire for providers with no US ties at all, due to concerns about extraterritorial US access to data.