[MUD-Dev] FW: [uodevlist] OT - Lawsuit on Lum's

[Geoffrey MacDougall]

-----Original Message-----
From: Jeff Freeman
Sent: Thu 21/09/2000 10:27 AM
To: mud-dev at kanga.nu
Cc:
Subject: Re: [MUD-Dev] FW: [uodevlist] OT - Lawsuit on Lum's

> Hm.  I don't know why any industry would "deserve" anything.  It's either
> viable or it's not.  If it isn't viable without a small army of unpaid
> workers, then why should it exist?

I think it is important to remember in this discussion that law does not
exist in a vacuum.  The entire North American judicial system is structured
in a very specific way - and that is to consider every event on a case by
case basis; hence why our system is so slow.

Laws can be enforced according to their spirit, or by the letter.  i.e., by
what they were trying to do, or by what they actually say.  Supreme courts
are measured and tracked according to which way they swing in this spectrum.
Not saying this case will go to the supreme court - but the laws under which
the AOL and OSI admins are suing were intended to prevent individuals
ignorant of the law (unfortunately usually new immigrants) from being abused
under various employment law loopholes, i.e., signing yourself into
servitude.  The constituents the law intended to protect are very different
from the average MMORPG gamer - who is almost by definition a middle-class,
computer-literate, educated professional with significant leisure time.

While the AOL & OSI admins have a case under the letter of the sweatshop
laws, they (always, of course, arguably) do not have as firm a footing if
their claims are measured against the spirit of the law.

For this reason - I don't see the case as being as open and shut as many
other people on this list...

Cheers,

G.




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