TheReak v State of SimDemocracy 2023 Civ 2

TheReak v State of SimDemocracy 2023 Civ 2

Date of judgment	25th April 2023
Judge	Judge Heath
Grounds	Common law tort of ToS ban procedure violation (Article 22\)
Verdict	D held liable for common law tort of ToS ban procedure violation
Result	D had to pay 100,000 Tau in damages to P
Applicable persuasive precedent	The common law tort of ToS ban procedure violation is committed when the government fails to follow legislated procedure with regards to ToS bans and unbans as required by law, 10 Remedies available for the tort shall be a minimum of 100,000 Tau total with a maximum of 50,000 Tau per day banned, 10

Introduction

[1]. TheReak was banned by the SimDemocracy TOS violation, but was not given a trial. Halfcat has sued the state on behalf of their client, TheReak, to recognize a new tort under common law and for 100,000 Tau per day they have been banned (8 Days).

Law and More Regarding The Case

[2]. TheReak has indeed been banned for 8 days for a TOS ban without a trial.

The POWER Act 2023 states the following:

Ҥ1. In times of civil unrest, examples like mass spamming, pinging, posting violations of Discord terms of service, and other forms of raiding, the President, Supreme Court Chief of Justice, Attorney General and SDBI Director shall have the power to ban individuals in order to remove them from the server and to mitigate damage.

§1.1. The Judiciary will assess the damage the individual(s) did and determine if they should be brought back into the server to face trial or a trial in absentia will occur.”

[3]. This part of Article 16 of Constitution was not brought up by either party, but should be included regardless:

Ҥ2.3. Under exceptional circumstances affecting public safety, a pre-emptive or summary mute or ban may be applied before a trial.

§2.3.1. After the issuing of such a suppression, a competent court must certify within forty-eight (48) hours that the pre-emptive ban is in accordance with this article. If such certification is not received, the person must be unbanned or unmuted.”

[4]. The following is a part of a statement released by the Chief Legal Officer of Discord:

“Our Terms of Service expressly prohibit using Discord for illegal or criminal purposes. This includes the sharing of documents that may be verifiably classified. Unlike the overwhelming majority of the people who find community on Discord, this group departed from the norms, broke our rules, and did so in apparent violation of the law.”

Arguments of the case

[5]. The Plaintiff claims their client has been illegally detained, due to the ban not being brought to a Judge. They are arguing that since their client’s case was certified by a Judge within 48 hours, that their client should be unbanned. The Plaintiff did not argue whether their client violated Discord’s TOS.

[6]. The Defendant, the Attorney general representing the state, argues that the defendant shall be banned due to their violation of Discord’s TOS, and does not mention the recently made SimDemocracy laws. The defendant states”This is a clear breach of IRL law as well as discord TOS. This again poses a threat to sim dem and the members of sim dem's security with the leaking of highly classified documents.” and continues on to relate the case to the case of Mooklyn, Panzer, and Black King, who were all banned due to TOS violations.

Verdict

[7]. The court agrees with the defendant, that the actions of TheReak are a breach of Discord TOS, as stated in the excerpt of the Discord press release regarding the original leaking of the documents, as described in section 4, and that the defendant would normally deserve to be banned under precedent. However, new laws have passed in relation to TOS bans since those cases.

[8]. The court agrees with the Plaintiff, that the government failed to follow SimDemocracy law by not having a judge review the summary ban of TheReak within 48 hours, therefore violating the Constitution and the POWER Act.

[9]. TheReak shall be unbanned from SimDemocracy, despite their violation of Discord TOS. The court finds 800,000 to be too high due to their violation of TOS and high amount overall, as that is equal to 3.3% of the overall economy. The court will however, award a total of 100,000 Tau to TheReak due to their troubles, as is the minimum specified in 10.

[10]. The court will now recognize a new tort under common law, called TOS ban procedure violation. Which shall be defined as the following:

“1. The tort of TOS ban procedure violation is to be defined as a failure of the government to follow legislated procedure in regards to TOS bans, and to not unban as required by law.

2\. Remedies available for TOS ban procedure violation shall be a minimum of 100,000 Tau total, and a maximum of 50,000 Tau per day banned.”