Ethics question

Is it okay to copy postings from the forums (such as job postings) and incorporate them, without the knowledge or consent of the poster, into an in world job finding service, for example? IMHO this is unethical at best, and a violation of something serious at worst--any thoughts?
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It sounds like a bad idea.

Ethics? In SL? Is there any?

No.

My vote is unethical. See entry below taken from Police Blotter:

Date: Saturday, July 1, 2006 Violation: Forum Informal Warning: Disclosure: Second Life Region: — Description: Posting unconsented chat log. Action taken: Warning issued.

Posting any unconsented dialog is unethical IMHO.

Here's a suggestion and you avoid the whole question of ethics.

Why not just post saying that you are starting an in world "help wanted" or a temp agency and ask for employers to send posts/listings of openings in their areas your way? Also post that you are looking for employees of a variaty of skills to match with jobs?

I dunno - unless I'm misunderstanding what's being asked here...

So, say you want to post an *advertisement* in the classified section of the forums, and someone decides to pick it up (syndicate it) in world?

I'm not sure why you would not want someone to do this. If you're advertising, you want as much exposure as possible, no? As long as they're not charging for this, I'm not following the objection - it seems counterproductive.

If we're not talking about advertisements, however - that's a different matter alltogether.

Yes. Unfortunately, the ethical seem to get screwed in unfun ways.

IRL temp agencies charge a "premium" for a new hire. I had somebody ask me to join their "employment agency" but I just didn't see any point since really the only jobs I can offer people are event hosts and dancers and both of those seem to get filled by club regulars.

I can't see why it's unethical, the forums are public (to SL residents), even if someone were to profit off of repackaging and distributing this info. If there were malicious intent, then it might be an issue.

It may be against the ToS, however.

I agree with Trav, if it's informational in nature. If you are then charging folks for the free info you snatch from a forum post it starts to taste funny.

I don't see a direct link between posting a chatlog and redistributing a post. The post is at least known to be public and, presumably, a job post is something the poster wants lots of people to see...hence the post.

That's actually a good point. Headhunters I've dealt with in the past frequently troll sites like Monster.com looking for resumes. If they locate a candidate for an employer, they charge the employer a comission. They're not getting (all of) these resumes sent to them directly - they're scowering publically available information.

Likewise, headhunters establish a pool of candidates they work with, and respond to RL classified ads on behalf of their candidates hoping to find a match (and make a comission), in addition to cold calling.

Currently, about the closest parallel in SL to Monster.com are the classified ads in-world & on the forums.

Granted, my own experiences with headhunters left much to be desired, and some of their ethics are indeed questionable. I'm just not sure that pulling information from public resources to match up employees with employers is the unethical part.