Sunday, October 28th, 2007
Issue: 46   Editor: Nyxxified


When in Rome... Lifegotbanned
If someone from Amsterdam decides to indulge in some marijuana in the United States, this person may sentenced to up to five days in jail. But one may say, "Marijuana is legal in Amsterdam, why can't I smoke it here?" Well it is the law, and you follow the laws of your current country of residence.

The same goes for Bootleggers. There are many laws and rights in the United States that people think apply to Bootleggers. Guess what? They do not apply. Although Bootleggers is on a US web-based server these laws do not apply. Bootleggers is not a concrete physical place or a part of USA so your human rights mean nothing here. The right to anonymity does not apply to Bootleggers so you are not allowed to use a proxy server. The right to a lawyer does not apply. If you are banned, the appeal process is strictly between you and your prosecutor. While free speech is somewhat implemented in the overall scheme of things in the terms of service, you do not have the right to say anything you want. In section 8 of the terms of service you are told not to post things that can be considered racist, obscene, or libelous. You also agree as quoted not to:

Quote:
"4. Upload, post, email, transmit or otherwise make available any unsolicited or unauthorized advertising, promotional materials, "junk mail," "Spam," "chain letters," "pyramid schemes," or any other form of solicitation (which includes Organized Crime advertisements in the Game Forum)."



As you may notice the underlined text, is referring specifically to advertisement of other online games and forums.

As an aside many players argue that this is a mafia game and rules are meant to be broken and circumvented. So do you think that when the police catch a money laundering operation and have enough evidence to prosecute people, that they let them off because they are mafia members? No they put them away, and rightly so. So if you decide to look for loopholes in the terms of service you should be prepared to do the time and lose your account and everything you worked so hard for.

The Bootleggers "constitution" is whatever is stated in the terms of service. You agree to these rules when you sign up. You cannot hide behind rules set out by your particular government. You will follow the rules or you will be banned. "When in Rome, do as the Romans do."