Freedom of Expression in Virtual Worlds

PDHoss writes "NYTimes.com has a story on freedom of expression as it applies to virtual communities, specifically 'The Sims Online.' How should issues of free speech, community standards, and censorship be addressed in the virtual world (given that we can barely agree on those issues in meatspace)?" There's also a story in the Independent, and we've mentioned this guy before.

Comments

Re:Freedom of Speech

[Le Marteau]

If you read the article, it points out on page 3 that shopping malls, while private property, can still be forced to obverse freedom of speech

Yeah yeah yeah. Courts come out with a lot of asenine decisions, don't they? Does not make it right. Those decisions fly right in the face of hundreds of years of jurisprudence and are from the so-called 'activist' courts which are results oriented rather than letter of the law and precedent oriented.

Are you a facist?

[Adolph_Hitler]

First, this is virtual reality. If we can't follow the constitution in virtual reality we should just set it on fire while we piss on the flag. I mean damn, if we cant have absolute freedom of speech in an imaginary fake world, well then whats next? Devices to invade our thoughts and censor them? There are limits to censorship. I agree with censorship when it is to protect someone, such as the president, or even to protect you or I from harm. I do not agree with censorship just because theres speech you don't like. The whole point of a virtual world is to have a world of total freedom. When you bring government even into the virtual world, its no longer a game. Its no longer fun anymore.