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Apr 18, 2004

Comments

1.

"and electronic voting is supposed to stop questions about rigged elections - right? "

What gave you that idea? Its supposed to make a rigged election undetectable and untraceable. :)

2.

Ren>Mr-President won the Alphaville Government Presidential Elections with 53% of the vote

So in a break with tradition, the candidate who controlled the counting system didn't get 99% of the vote, only 53%?

Richard

3.

Richard > So in a break with tradition, the candidate who controlled the counting system didn't get 99% of the vote, only 53%?

Yup, that's pretty much the allegation. It seems that voting was not in the hands of a party fully independent of both candidates.

4.

Ren>It seems that voting was not in the hands of a party fully independent of both candidates.

I guess Mr President will need to show that he really is in charge, then.

Does this mean that Alphaville will be invading anywhere in the near future?

Richard

5.

So far the discussion on the Alphaville Herald seems to be generating more heat than light, but when people started throwing words like "blackmail" and "libel" around, it started me thinking. Is it possible to libel another person's avatar in the legal sense? After mulling it over, my first guess is that yes, you could make a good legal argument for it, but that showing any significant damages would be tough in most cases.

6.

CherryBomb> Is it possible to libel another person's avatar in the legal sense?

That’s a very interesting question. I believe the answer is yes – in principle, well theoretically in principle.

The principle being that that if an avatar is sufficient to identify someone and that someone has a commercial use of their persona, then the can seek legal remedy if their reputation is damaged. I think that the two key cases are Wendt v. Host International 125 F.3d 806 (1997) - which establishes a link between individual and certain aspects of persona even when there is a copyright involved; and the ever wonderful Motschenbacher v. R.J. Reynolds Tobacco Co., 498 F.2d 821 (9th Cir. 1974) - which establishes that likeness is not necessary to have a right of publicity claim in an artefact.

7.

Richard > Does this mean that Alphaville will be invading anywhere in the near future?

I believe that they are invading Second Life’s ‘Island’ next Tuesday – unless it's raining.

8.

I just published a position paper on this. It was actually a phone conversation with Henry Jenkins that led me to pull the trigger on the story and expose the fix. This explains why:

http://www.alphavilleherald.com/archives/000191.html

9.

So what's more asinine - holding a political election in a virtual world where you have no real authority or police powers, rigging that election to make a 14 year old girl cry, or being the guy who at the last minute decides he doesn't want to play along with the storyline any more and screw it up for everyone?

10.

Oh quite possibly the last of those. lol.

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