SD v Imadearedditaccount5 2020 Crim 12
SD v Imadearedditaccount5 2020 Crim 12
| Date of judgment | 30th October 2020 |
|---|---|
| Judge | Judge LordDeadlyOwl |
| Charges | 1 charge of Misuse of Permissions (Article 34 of the Criminal Code) |
| Verdict | Not guilty |
| Sentence | |
| Applicable persuasive precedent |
JUDGMENT by Judge LordDeadlyOwl
The case background and question:
[1]. The case regards the question of whether or not posting “Illegal advertisement :triumph:” in the channel “#official-announcements” is legal.
[2]. On the tenth of October 2020 user u/Imadearedditaccount5 posted “Illegal advertisement :triumph:” in the channel “#official-announcements”. This was in response to the user u/Euphyrric posting “Ensure you vote correctly this election. Vote Euph. Also make sure you wish @left anarchist a happy birthday”. The background the defendant presents for sending this message was that the above message was in violation of the criminal code article 49 - thus making it an illegal advertisement.
The courts judgement of the case:
[3]. To answer the question of whether or not the defendants post in question is illegal, there is barely any legal precedent. The only legal precedent that currently exists is Supreme Court Justice u/TheMainCharacter’s judgement in State of SimDemocracy v u/BTernaryTau, where the court establishes in 3 that “The court finds that misuse of the channel devalues it, since the average person looking at it to see important announcements would not be able to do so. The court sees this as a form of social harm.” and in 2”... The court interprets the relevant statute (Art 1 §1.1. of the Fifth Discord Act) to create a restriction that the channel be used only for announcements that are related to the government or otherwise important to the community, given that the Act also establishes other channels for general purpose use.”
[4]. Going off of this as the only legal precedent similar to the case, the question then becomes: Is “Illegal advertisement ” an announcement that is related to the government or otherwise important to the community.
[5]. The court finds that the message is not related to the government.
[6]. The court finds that the message in and of itself is not an announcement that is related to the government or otherwise important to the community. However, when looking at the message in context with other messages in the channel, the case looks a bit different.
[7]. The message in question, is pointing out that a crime was possibly committed. The court finds that it is important to the community to point out when someone breaks our laws, considering that we as a community pride ourselves in having a functioning simulated society. Incumbent election interference is also a crime that is directly a danger against our democracy, and considering we are a simulated democracy, and that is one of the key points of our community, the court finds that this is also good reason as to why the message in question is an announcement that is important to the community.
[8]. The court finds the defendant u/imadearedditaccount5 not guilty on the charge of misuse of permissions.
