Discrimination in the XStreetSL Uncensored Warning

I'm no lawyer, and I don't know the law. Many people responding in this thread are in the same situation that I am. I don't know who does or who doesn't, so I'm not casting any stones at anyone. I'm simply stating that this appears to be a larger problem than just one site. Since LL said they are working on it, that means it most likely involves their lawyers, who do know the law (at least one would hope).

I work for a software company, so I know that things dealing with lawyers do tend to take time to resolve. Even something that seems as simple as a verbiage change.

Going off of your Forum join date, that would explain why you might make such a comical statement. And if this id is really an alt and you have been around awhile, then you know just how wrong that statement likely is.

The correct verbiage, based upon history, should be "Since LL said they are working on it, they will surely get back to us about it in a year or two or three or............"

Yeah, I know, I have a newer join date. Too bad it doesn't say my SL join date. LOL

I've actually been hanging around these forums, mostly lurking and reading threads (new and old) for about a month. I understand where you are coming from. Of course, working for a software company, I can see where things can take time, so I do, personally, try to give benefit of the doubt. Especially when it comes to legal matters.

Yes, and that is why I said they may be in trouble if they don't change it.

EDIT: Oh. I said that over on xstreet... Not here. I get the two sites mentally crossed a lot.


California has strong Equal Protection laws - while I do not think they explicitly cover TG, the language in them is sufficient to make a case that no identifiable status group can be discriminated against without passing rather strict form of scrutiny test to justify it.

Further, San Francisco likely has even stronger rules in this specific area.

Frustratingly, I've read the laws and some case law on a related topic, but its been too long for me to make a certain call on it.

There's only one attempt in the USA in recent decades to makes laws -requiring- discrimination. I'm thinking of a Colorado voter constitutional initiative in the 90s to make it illegal for LGBT people to have the same rights as non-LGBTs. That law was struck down by the courts as unconstitutional.

California's prop-8 constitutional ban on same sex marriage may be a second example - as I believe it goes beyond the typical hate-law over marriage definitions.

To me it read like they were saying "there's some of this content too", not really that it's *more* explicit than male or female content. Singling that out as worthy of a special note is pretty uncalled for IMO, but I didn't pick up on it until I read the remarks. I guess I'm so used to treating everyone the same that it didn't jump out at me as really being offensive.. no more than if they'd listed something totally "me" in that spot *shrugs*.

Well, let's see if they deal with it in a few days. If they need to consult their lawyers, or any corporate interests who are behind the "Adult" policies, that's something that will take at least a business day.

The reason I suspect that this could be different than the usual unfulfilled promise from Linden Lab is that, by making various LGBT groups, Linden Lab faces bad press. Linden Lab doesn't have a history of responding to the concerns of its paying individual users, but it does have a history of responding to bad press.

XSL wasn't under Linden control when this went in, so it's "blame the previous owners".

They've fixed it:

"WARNING/DISCLAIMER
You are about to be redirected to Xstreet SL Uncensored.
The adult content within this site is intended for ADULTS ONLY (18 years of age or older). If you are not of legal age or do not wish to view materials of a sexually-explicit nature, then please click CANCEL now. If you continue on to view any adult content within this website, you are stating the following:

1. I am an adult over the age of 18 years.

2. I will not allow anyone under the legal age, stated in 1. above, to access any of materials labeled Mature.

3. I am viewing mature content of this site willingly and I understand that by doing so I will be exposed to materials of a sexually-explicit nature."

Linden Lab should have caught it when going over it befor announcing the changes on the blog.

Objection! Counsel is assuming facts not in evidence!

PS: what did I say? Fastest response to a JIRA *EVER*.

Funny how everyone expects a company to be perfect, even though no one in the world is perfect. Go figure. They did fix it after it was brought to their attention, which is good. (And I was right on that. LOL)

Personally, I get annoyed with the "they should have caught it" thing because I've worked in software quality assurance. Fact is, no one can catch everything. Best efforts are made and a product is released. Do bugs get released (even verbiage issues)? Unfortunately, yes. Does it help to gripe and complain when a bug is found that "they should have caught it?" Not really, the team is probably already doing that to themselves. I know, because I've been on that side of things and wondered "how could I have missed that?"

Respect to Infinity who I just had a chat with after he dropped me an IM about a JIRA comment I made. Thank you for getting it changed

What rot " or you are offended by transgender images or topics," its amazing how far back in the stone age that statement is.
Since when is a transgendered person offensive,the offensive part is LL for writing this rubbish,
If they had left the statement about being offended by sexual content,that would have been sufficient,but it seems transgendered people are are being singled out here in a non sexual context and soley for being transgendered,that smells of discrimination in a big way.
I see no other group mentioned,the transgendered movement is supposed to be going forward not backwards.
In canada transgendered people are fully protected by law and rightly so
I m surprised they did 'nt mention lesbians or gays,but no, for some reason they feel transgendered folks would offend some people ,nothing else only transgendered folks,
The lumping in with sexual content implies a sexual aspect to transgenderism,when in truth it is a person expressing who they feel they are deep within themselves and dressing to express their true self outwardly.
It is an idiotic statement to make about transgendered folks and shows a complete lack of understanding of transgendered people and issues

Hey.

People.

They fixed it already.

good!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

The entire disclaimer was 136 words. How hard is it to read that? They aren't being asked to proofread "Atlas Shrugged".

Lord Sullivan may want to edit his first post indicating it has been fixed, or this thread will never die. LOL

You'd be surprised at how much easier the simple things are to miss than the complicated ones.

I give Linden Lab credit for fixing this quickly.

I also notice that this is unusually fast action for Linden Lab, and an issue that was taken outside the internal process (forums, jiras, Linden meetings) and to "real-world" action groups.

Does that mean that shaming LL to outside groups and media put pressure on LL to make the change? I don't know. My hypothesis would be though that when it comes to issues of LL treating its customers unfairly, there will be a high coorelation between shaming LL in outside media and LL treating customers more fairly.

It could be a case of LL just making a mistake, not catching something. But they don't fix the Knowledge base or their own web site information this quickly when errors are pointed out to them.

Bloody hell Good point

I choose to believe that a faux pas of this magnitude was sufficiently embarrassing that they would have acted regardless.

Good job everyone. LL fixed that tout de suite so they deserve some credit too.

Yes.. Well.. Infinity's comments sorta annoyed me.

If they didn't want to single out a segment of the community in a bad way, it seems to me that they would not keep doing it.

Talk from LL doesn't seem to be worth anywhere near what it used to be.

Thread closed per request.