Too many topics, too little time

SLCC Community Standards – Agreement:

(this is a contract) -jh ianal

The Future United, which presents the Second Life Community Convention (SLCC), is dedicated to running a successful event which fosters discussion and camaraderie celebrating the diversity of Second Life residents. As a non-profit organization, The Future United seeks to protect all SLCC attendees. The SLCC Community Standards are a set of guidelines that we expect attendees to follow for everyone’s benefit. Through your attendance you are agreeing to follow the below Community Standards.

(see, they get to agree or assent) -jh (basic theory of contracts)

If you have already registered and do not want to follow the community standards we will cancel your registration, and return your money provided you contact us before July 13, 2007.

(this is necessary or they would have had a void contract)-jh

2. If you are a member of the press, please be respectful to those you are interviewing and all attendees.

(respectful is not defined, nor is it commonly defined, what counts as respect in nyc is very different from LA or London) -jh

3. Always get permission before taking a photograph or video. Many people go to great lengths to keep themselves off of the World Wide Web. If someone asks you not to take their picture, or if you have taken one and they ask you to delete it, please oblige.

(3 is unenforceable and really unnecessary, well i guess they could throw you out, but they can’t touch your property….) -jh

4. Any property damage caused by an individual (including, but not limited to, hotel rooms, displays, the convention space or other space on the Hilton grounds) will be that individual’s responsibility.

5. With the exception of Phreak Media and its subsidiaries, recording of video or audio of any sessions or live performances is strictly prohibited and subject to legal action. We are bound by both union rules and contractual obligations. This does not apply to news coverage and interviews or incidental documentary footage, B-Roll and background images. It is not permissible to rebroadcast any performance, panel or track.

(note… they do not assign intellectual property here, they just claim real property is phreak media’s, so they are asking you to do what in terms of your Ip if you present?)

6. During question and answer periods, time at the microphone will be limited to 1-2 minutes for a question, strictly adhered to and enforced by moderators and organizers. Please, no speeches or diatribes.

7. The Future United reserves the right to remove any attendee at any time for non-adherence of the community standards. Such decisions will not be made lightly and will be final. SLCC attendees also agree to release The Future United from all legal responsibilities, indemnifying and holding harmless all members of The Future United and all other attendees.

—–

so the key bits are:

it’s a contract, parts are unenforceable, parts make claims that are questionable. the recording and indemnification bits should be fine. however, i wonder very much about the recording bit.

The photography bit is what i find problematic. Some people use photography in ways that are very central to their mental states and their capacity to interact with groups of people who are unfamiliar. Camera’s provide barriers and access points, camera’s bridge between people. they are deeply psychological and I suspect they aid many ‘geeks’ in being able to cope with social situations. the capacity to take photographs, I then argue, is the capacity for some people to ‘break the ice’, and ‘breaking the ice’ as this requests those photographers to do, is precisely what some photographers feel deeply uncomfortable doing. it is the difference between taking a picture and then talking, versus having to ask to take a picture. It is the nature of the lense… it is a barrier and portal, it keeps people out and lets you in… and this document doesn’t recognize the population that uses the lense differently than it provides for. the camera is for many people a device that mediates and thus reconstructs the conventions of social interaction, this makes them act differently when they can take pictures than when they cannot, and for some of those people the camera allows access, and i think this rule cuts those people hard.

this sort of makes me not want to attend, does anyone else get that feeling from this?

I also think that this sets a very bad tone in terms of expected behavior and that it aims are arbitrary and undefined expectations in ways that seem to cover for the places where it is explicit.

i really dislike ‘after the fact’ contracts like this, maybe that’s just me.