Submission + - LiveJournal's lawyers mistake tags for crimes
lrucker writes: "LiveJournal has been targetted by a self-proclaimed watchdog group called "Warriors for Innocence" (warriorsforinnocence.org) which has caused them to delete many journals that list interests which they disapprove of — not journals that wrote about or promoted such interests, merely ones that had them on their user profiles. For the most part, these were fiction-writing or fictional characters in RPGs, and had disclaimers stating that quite clearly — one fictional villain's disclaimer stated in no uncertain terms that anyone who shared those interests was expressly not welcome.
People who complained were sent a boilerplate response:
Dear LiveJournal user,
Material which can be interpreted as expressing interest in, soliciting, or encouraging illegal activity places LiveJournal at considerable legal risk. When journals that contain such material are reported to us, we must suspend them. Because LiveJournal's interests list serves as a search function, and because listing an interest enables other people also interested in a similar topic to gather and/or congregate, we have been advised that listing an interest in an illegal activity must be viewed as using LiveJournal to solicit that illegal activity.
We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, we have no discretion in these cases; if a journal profile is reported to us and contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal. Journals, on the other hand, may express or imply interest in illegal activity or express or imply a desire to meet and/or interact with others with similar interests, but only if the journal clearly (1) is in opposition to or condemnation of the illegal activity, (2) does not encourage the illegal activity and (3) is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.
Last time I looked, fiction was not an illegal activity, even if the activities described were — and some of these merely expressed interest in those activities, but never actually wrote about them.
Also hit was a Spanish-language journal to discuss Lolita — yes, that Lolita.
http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/266024.html — on the difference between people who work with law enforcement to catch net predators, and the ones who just make their lives more difficult
http://heidi8.livejournal.com/777063.html — DNS info about the group behind the deletions"
People who complained were sent a boilerplate response:
Dear LiveJournal user,
Material which can be interpreted as expressing interest in, soliciting, or encouraging illegal activity places LiveJournal at considerable legal risk. When journals that contain such material are reported to us, we must suspend them. Because LiveJournal's interests list serves as a search function, and because listing an interest enables other people also interested in a similar topic to gather and/or congregate, we have been advised that listing an interest in an illegal activity must be viewed as using LiveJournal to solicit that illegal activity.
We recognize that many people list these types of interests for shock value, as a method of expressing opposition for these illegal activities, or to indicate fictional activity. Unfortunately, we have no discretion in these cases; if a journal profile is reported to us and contains interests that support illegal activity, we must suspend the journal. Journals, on the other hand, may express or imply interest in illegal activity or express or imply a desire to meet and/or interact with others with similar interests, but only if the journal clearly (1) is in opposition to or condemnation of the illegal activity, (2) does not encourage the illegal activity and (3) is not used in furtherance of any illegal activity.
Last time I looked, fiction was not an illegal activity, even if the activities described were — and some of these merely expressed interest in those activities, but never actually wrote about them.
Also hit was a Spanish-language journal to discuss Lolita — yes, that Lolita.
http://liz-marcs.livejournal.com/266024.html — on the difference between people who work with law enforcement to catch net predators, and the ones who just make their lives more difficult
http://heidi8.livejournal.com/777063.html — DNS info about the group behind the deletions"
