On 04/19/2011 06:26 PM, David Christensen wrote:
So, my next question is "has the complaint resolution process broken
down?".
It's been 4 days, and I haven't seen a reply to the above question.
Right now, per the "Beginning Perl mailing list FAQ" (FAQ) [1], this
list is controlled by "moderators".
One of the duties of the moderators is to administer justice -- to
receive complaints, to investigate, to make charges, to judge, and to
carry out punishment; all in private. There is no public trial, no jury
of peers, and no appeal.
I'm not an attorney, but any public disclosure of the proceeding makes
me think "libel". (As I understand it, "freedom of speech" is not an
legal defense for publicly denigrating people, whether or not they
"broke the rules"). And, any order for apology, goods, or services
makes me think "extortion". Satirical references to "large, yet padded,
clue-sticks" and "XQJ-37 nuclear powered pansexual roto-plooker[s]" [1]
are meaningless when it comes time for a moderator to do their work.
That said, I believe the FAQ correctly identifies two legal means for
punishment -- (1) terminating the thread and/or (2) banning the
convicted from posting to the list (with the presumed power to set the
duration of the ban according to the severity of offense). I wonder if
there are more.
In addition to existing tort laws and case precedents, criminal "Cyber
Bullying" legislation is coming into effect all around the world [2]. I
believe we can all understand the necessity of not running afoul of the
criminal justice system.
If you think about it, acting on a complaint involves risk and failure
to act on a complaint also involves risk -- it's a Catch-22 situation.
Whether they know it or not, many interests are currently at risk, and
will remain at risk, so long as this list is in operation --
complainants, witnesses, moderators, Internet Service Providers, the
Perl Foundation, and likely others.
Assuming that we want this list to continue, then we all have a stake in
understanding and mitigating the risks.
Other Internet forums, notably Slashdot, use democratic means for
dealing with undesired posts. From a technical standpoint, this
requires infrastructure not normally found on mailing lists. We're Perl
programmers, so, technically, that's not a problem. But, I don't know
if such processes have a better legal risk assessment and/or mitigation
cost.
This isn't the only mailing list on the Internet; these issues must have
been discussed elsewhere. Is there a canonical forum for discussing such?
Better yet, is there a legally-researched and vetted solution that we
can adopt?
This issue affects all perl.org mailing lists and/or web forums. Does
the Perl Foundation have legal counsel, and does he/ she/ they need to
be involved?
David
[1] http://learn.perl.org/faq/beginners.html
[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cyber_bullying
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