Like I have stated several times in many posts and comments, I support the leadership of the Ethereum project personally, past and present, no matter what, even if the forks go through. In this case I support EthCore's work and leadership in this crisis as well and the guidance to the community. I am also a firm supporter of the Ethereum project at large.

However, I have also been against any forks (hard or soft) of the Ethereum network. I think it must remain untouched and the hacker of TheDAO has to be dealt with off-blockchain (FBI, legal system, courts, computer forensics, counter-hack, etc.).

I know, though, I am in the minority in this debate and the soft-fork at least is very likely to pass.

But now I a afraid of another potential threat: The legal and regulation implications for this community actually freezing funds (as stated in the Geth 1.4.8 fork and instituted by default in this Parity version promoted here as well) and after that possibly confiscating and re-assigning money to original owners.

I am not a lawyer, but this is what I think intuitively the potential legal issues could be in my mind if the community and leadership continue these steps of forking, freezing funds, re-assigning funds, etc.:

• If TheDAO attacker were to be pursued using traditional systems (FBI, courts, legal system, even computer forensics, etc.) and Ethereum remained untouched, there could be a case that Ethereum is "open source systems infrastructure' therefore neutral and not subject to control or regulation (similar to systems providers to financial institutions)
• Since the Ethereum leadership decided to proactively take action in a $50 million heist, it makes them seem as they are "administrators" of the business, financial and economic side of the Ethereum system
• The fork proposed seems to arbitrarily seize funds from thousands of people (in the soft-fork stage, if/when it's adopted by majority of miners)
• When the hard fork happens, the community will have also arbitrarily confiscated ~$50 million from a user, who has rights even if he/she is a hacker, and therefore not gone thru due process to be prosecuted and sentenced to return those funds, etc.
• By freezing or confiscating the money and reassigning it to other accounts (in the potential hard-fork), the Ethereum devs and community would have "touched" funds (a regulatory key point that makes the difference between an entity being a Broker-Dealer (touches customer funds) or a Registered Investment Advisor (does not touch money or securities) in the US -- FINRA)
• If the leading developers may have directly influenced the "community" to decide these actions, they may seem like "principals" or even executive managers in the Ethereum network
• More legal issues I can't think of right now

I have supported the "white-hat" attack, but I have heard that is also a potential liability since funds freezing and confiscation may be present there.

All I describe above may be my own mental mumbo-jumbo, and I certainly hope no legal issues nor regulator or government action is prompted by the soft and hard forks if they happen, but it is important to have all our bases studied at least.