Is slander allowed on the forums?

UANAL? You are admitting to being anal?

I never poke into these threads but I must comment on something that hasn't been mentioned.

Stating things that are LIBEL or SLANDEROUS rely on an agreed upon set of morals. Something this world does not have. If you use the TOS as a set of SL morals, then LIBEL or SLANDEROUS behavior is not allowed at all. You must fill out an Abuse Report and bringing it to the forums would cause the poster to get in further trouble. As SL grows and LL loses control on most fronts, this all becomes fairly useless. The TOS is already massivly outdated and it was updated only a couple of months ago. I believe that LL is backing further away and leaving it to the community to determine the realities of our morals. However what is moral for one may be completely immoral for another. Therefore I imagine the future of SL to be a series of city-states that each have a local set of morals, if you will. The private islands have already begun this process in many scenarios.

I personally don't believe anyone should make posts about anything LIBEL or SLANDEROUS. If you are unable to take care of the situation yourself by either discussing it with the individual or making an abuse report, then it is not a large enough issue to be dealt with. Lastly if you don't have proof beyond a shadow of a doubt, then you definitely shouldn't even bother posting here. Take it as a loss and move on, or find yourself buried in flames. That's kind of the way it works in these forums

Thank you for your answers

Mmmm, I guess this is one more issue that somehow brings us to the topic of player governance...

For the edification of all - I am NOT the Bob mentioned in this missive!

Bob Bravo, esq.

Not unlike Neal Stephenson's The Diamond Age, which I find fascinating. Already there seem to be what could be classified as "phyles" as within the book, although the difference is that in SL, we can join up to 15 of them.

Ignoring the slander/libel differential... I've come to the conclusion that not only is it allowed, but rather it's compulsory.

you made ur bed, now lay in it...famous RL peeps have so called "lies" or "slander" against them? SL celeb=same probs as RL celeb...socially...be a biggot...i dont care...can i get a discount on some land? ohhhh, you cant afford it....dats kewl..i understand. just go buy some more land, dont help the lil man out...hehe

im talkin out my ass...lol...just call it jealousy...might make u feel better

will u sign my bum?

I'd like to loudly and proudly announce that since it can be difficult for slander and libel to be diffrentiated, I shall combine the both of them as follows:

slander + libel = slibel, or SLibel to be even more fitting.

Here's my daily SLibel:

Francis Chung makes dangerous products.
A hug attachment cause me emotional distress
too many hug crush my avatar bones
Seburo is popular weapon with griefer kin
I blame Miss Chung
she makes the weapons
It *all* her fault
Jetski is not friendly to metaverse environment
Watches choke wrists
Big desk = too many prims, starves other prims
She is a diabolical
ARMS DEALER
and fiend of
DIGITAL WITCHCRAFT
I am in the process of filing a lawsuit.
Her grevious ways must be stopped!

Per our Forum Guidelines (availble from the "Guidelines" link at the top of the forum pages) - we will remove any "Hate speech and revelation of other people’s real life information" and we will also take various steps while moderating the forums, including "editing aggressively offensive personal attacks to remove those statements that violate the community standards (with an accompanying statement explaining the violation and reason for edit), please note inflammatory language, such as "fraud, liar, cheater, griefer, troller, jerk, scam artist" etc is strongly discouraged, but will not be removed."

Further, while we don't condone slander, it is very difficult online, as in the real world, to define or prove. If someone has written something on the Forums which you believe is slander, I would suggest that you discuss it with the individual involved to come to some form of resolution. Also, if it is a business issue, another way to 'disprove' the claim is by having your loyal customers vouch for you directly.

Jeska,

Indeed. Slander is surely a civil matter. I would like to see only illegal things (plus racial hate speech, which is illegal in my country) removed from the forums.

It's a game.
Get a life.
Get over it.

Great idea... really great... I hereby nominate Ms. Anshe Chung as Barroness Royale, Dutchess of Ahern, and Lady of Olive.

Oh wait, I guess one doesn't get elected to those positions of feudal peerage. Never mind.

...and this is something I see all too little of in heated threads. One has to wonder, why?

You have no idea what slander and libel are. Please don't confuse people.

Slandar and libel are essentially the same thing, with one and only one difference:
slander is spoken, libel is written.

That's it.

So unless it's in RL, on the phone, teamspeak, or other form of verbal spoken communication, we're talking libel.

With that distinction out of the way, we can define both very clearly with a set of requirements:
1. The statements in question are not true.
2. The statements are made specifically about someone. (As opposed to a race or creed.)
3. Even if no specific name is mentioned, it still may be slander / libel under a few conditions:
3a. The person slander / libels a group small enough. (Usually about 20 people or less.)
3b. The identity of the victim is easily obtained. Example, "The person who lives at 1600 Penn Ave" or "the blonde office assistant from XYZ Dept."

Libel and slander are not criminal offenses, but civil. The civil recourse is very straightforward.
1. Slander / libel can be proven by the alleged victim.
2. A demonstratable loss can be proven. (Monetary, loss of job, etc.)
3. Again, statements are not true.
4. The alleged victim does not fall under a good faith celebrity exception. (The landmark case being The People vs. Larry Flint - where the famous p0rn mogul won a Supreme Court appeal that his satirical portrayel of Jerry Falwell was meant to be humorous and not taken seriously.) This is not a blanket exception, as plenty of celebrities, for example, have won cases against tabloids for printing outlandish false stories. The key factor here is whether the alleged slander / libel was intended to be humorous.

Remember:
Linden Lab falls under US Laws. These are not criminal laws, again, but since Linden Lab controls the medium of the forum and claims to regulate it, it is easily arguable in civil court that un-censored libel in these forums is in fact encouraged by Linden Lab and therefore they can be held responsible.

I recommend everyone to be familiar with their rights, don't put up with slander or libel anywhere, get tough with griefers, and remember that a lot of us are here to support you, because we all fear for our rights

Nicely said.

if you want to make a libel case, you have to publically renounce your anonymity to the community before the libel is printed.

example:
hiro pendragon wears womens underwear.

now i will walk away from this thread unscathed. although if my comments results in loss of sword sales, i might be in trouble.

I don't see how the example has anything to do with your statement, and I don't see any explanation of your assertion.

Why do you think we have to give up RL anonymity to the community? If I have an alias in RL and that alias is slandered, I have just as much of a case.

here's how i know hiro wears panties - they are always tied in a knot.

my example illustrates, who the heck is hiro pendragon anyway? it's not you, the person i'm talking to, but a virtual entity. i did note if these comments do affect your sales of swords, and consequently, hundreds of USD a month of income, i might be in trouble.

good luck to anyone wishing to sue me or LL.

Now you boys play nice

Okay, you've clarified what you meant.

Hiro Pendragon could be considered one of two things:
1. An alias. Clearly SL is just another means of which humans communicate, and so while you're talking through a virtual entity, the end interlocutor is the same. (I love when I get to use that word!)
2. A business / a brand name. In RL companies can sue for libel / slander just as much as people can. If I come out with a phony study that says say, Tylenol kills babies, and it's picked up by National media, and then the sales and stock of Tylenol's owner company plummets, and stays down even after the truth is out... that's clear grounds for civil action. The requirements are met:
- A specific person / company targetted (I omitted the company in the original post, I admit, but I did it so as not to confuse people)
- False statements
- Shown monetary damages
- Proof that this was not meant as a humorous thing. (As proof that it was presented and accepted by news media.)

I may add that slander / libel is one of the exceptions to the US 1st Amendment for freedom of speech.

Edit: And I doubt I'll lose sales for my <SUBLIMINAL AD>blades</SUBLIMINAL AD> by you saying that, lol!

Next we're gonna need an SL court of Law with Judges, Jury and Council. Another part of government.

Ya know what I find funny? Most RL nations bitch about their governments and local administrations and the restrictions they bring and the freedoms they inhibit. Here we are pioneering a completely new virtual evolution that we have the ability to shape into the utopia we dream of... and people are screaming for legislation, governments, more rules and regulations merely because they don't know how to conduct themselves as a group or community and need to be told what to do instead of trying to think for themselves.

Humans are odd creatures. So glad I'm not one.

Oh..we will also have Animal Rights activists next to protect your rights Kris. lol.

<<Reads Kris's thread reply first....


Hmmm...so True

<<Reads rest of threads.....

Walks out of thread Laughing Hystericaly