On Sat, Feb 21, 2009 at 2:45 AM, Ed Murphy <emurph...@socal.rr.com> wrote:
> Detail: http://zenith.homelinux.net/cotc/viewcase.php?cfj=2387
>
> ============================== CFJ 2387 ==============================
>
> Warrigal is a party to The Small Partial Mousetrap.
>
> ========================================================================
Proto-judgement: I am going to go against the judgement of CFJ 2380
here. Indeed, as long as the Rules provide a specific mechanism for
upholding a right, we should defer to that mechanism and not invent a
new one. But Rule 101 says:
vii. Every player has the right to deregister rather than
continue to play.
Deregistration by announcement does not adequately protect this right:
while it allows players to deregister, it does not allow them to cease
to continue to play, as required by Rule 101 (vii), because they may
still be subject to contracts. It has been found previously that a
person bound to a contract is still playing the game even if e is not
an official Player, as common sense demands.
One interpretation is that, as a player can simply cease to be
subscribed to the lists and walk away, regardless of whether Agora
still considers em a player or whatever punishment the Agoran rules
might specify for eir inaction, the 'continue to play' bit does not
grant any additional rights, but rather limits them: a person only has
the right to deregister if e is actually going to stop playing. A
clause of the form 'Players SHALL NOT deregister if they intend to
continue taking part in Agora generally' would not be rendered
ineffective by R101 because it does not infringe that right.
But these Rules exist from an Agoran standpoint, and I think it's
reasonable to interpret the clause as also guaranteeing players the
right to cease to continue to play from that standpoint, i.e. to have
Agora cease to consider them to be playing. In this case, the normal
deregistration mechanism is not adequate for a player bound by
contracts such as The Small Partial Mousetrap, because Agora would
still consider em, after deregistration, to be playing against eir
will through those contracts. Rule 101 must protect the right
somehow. The simplest mechanism to infer is a type of deregistration
identical to normal deregistration, but extended from just Citizenship
to contracts and obligations generally. This would allow anyone to
free emself from those things by announcement, but would prohibit em
from entering into contracts or otherwise taking part in the game for
thirty days thereafter. I judge that this mechanism exists and
Warrigal invoked it. FALSE.
