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Article #80

Was it right?

#80
From: Jason Arron Black
Date: Thu, 08 Jan 1998 00:00
60 lines
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The Vancouver community Net cut my account for posts I made to usenet
I posted some articles that the VCN claimed was "Hate"
but since they didn't have a rule against posting "hate"
they had a quicky meeting then added a new rule to their user
aggreement addressing so called hate speech.

Now, this is where it gets really Orwellian

After the new rule was added, I stopped using my VCN account
and put my email on forwarding, no more posts were made to usenet
nor did I send any email...nothing at all

Just a couple of days ago, I attemtpted to log onto my VCN account
and was met with a message stating that my account was cut for 
posting articles that are agianst the VCN user agreement rules.

The problem is, the articles in question were posted *BEFORE*
the new rule was added, and the VCN has decided to use it agianst me
regardless of the fact that I heeded their warning that If I continued
to post any questionable articles after the new rule was added
I would have my account cut.


should VCN or any freenet for that matter be able to create new rules
and use them against you for things that were done or said
before the rule was created?
\

For example:

Someone posts his/her phone number on usenet asking for people to call 
them for whatever reason.

Then the Freenet decides that they no longer want people to use the system
to post phone numbers to usenet.

the Freenet issues a warning to the user that they don't want people
doing that, even though there is nothing in the user agreement 
saying no posting of phone numbers allowed.

The user responds by telling the freenet that unless it's in the rules
they will continue to post their phone number if they wish.

The Freenet responds by having a board meeting to discuss it
then comes up with a new rule stating that the freenet users are now
no longer allowed to post phone numbers.
and sends out a mass mailing to all users stating the new rule.


The user hwo posted their phone number reads the new rule and stops
posting any more phone numbers, thus obeying the freenet rules.


Then the user after a few weeks attempts to log onto the freenet
only to find that their account was cut, because they posted their phone 
number in the past...evn though the rule against it never existed.

Is the Freenet right or was the users account wrongfully terminated?
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From: cj224@torfree.net (Jason Arron Black)
Subject: Was it right?
Date: 1998/01/08
Message-ID: <EMHL97.KA.0.bloor@torfree.net>
X-Deja-AN: 314104034
Organization: Toronto Free-Net
Newsgroups: torfree.general,van.general,bc.general,bc.politics