Some perspective from a Lawyer about 'Donglegate'

http://codebetter.com/johnvpetersen/2013/03/22/donglegate-a-legal-perspective-and-some-social-commentary/

So I read this commentary...  And I have to say, I sort of agree with what this man says.

On another site:

http://siliconangle.com/blog/2013/03/29/social-media-fallout-adria-richards-and-donglegate/

The previous link was listed, and I followed and read it.

The insights do ping on some things I do want to speak of, and again harping earlier comments with regards to the Sexual Harassment.

One is the pointing out of the First Amendment right.  I will note, that in most cases, citing First Amendment rights has been the most abused excuse for people when they complain about a posting on a private site's forum getting taken down.  I am no lawyer, I will admit this.  However, one of the things I do want to point out is that the First Amendment right is more of the situation of the right to air grievances to the government without the fear of imprisonment or sedition from the government in return.

The reason I point this out, is the fact that many people use the argument of First Amendment as 'their right to be heard'.  The most common problem with this right belief is that the level of 'right' is to everything at the highest level.  I believe also the most common problem is that when people try to exercise these rights, they forget that the right to free speech is there so long as it doesn't violate the rights of others.  So in the case of this situation, the 'rights' of the guys there was to a degree, but at the same time, to make another person uncomfortable, there is a limit.  However, two wrongs do not make a right either.  What Adria Richards did was also violated their rights as well to the basics of benefit of the doubt.  This would be similar to me pointing a finger at someone and calling them a child molester just on my impression or feelings of what was said.

One of the things that people have forgotten, is that the internet is currently similar to the wild west.  And Wild West Justice tended to sometimes resort of 'mob rules', in this case, Lynch Mob rules.  In this case, one man lost his job because of one person stating he was harassing her in a convention.  There is no benefit of the doubt given, it was a direct accusation that had been investigated and ruled as an offense for the company.  What more, the public nature of the accusation left the company with little to no recourse but to fire said person because of the potential legal concerns on their end as this person was literally pointed out as a problem in public.

Here is where I see the law coming into place that justifies the firing of Adria Richards.  In the situation of the reporting sexual harassment, the person being reported is suppose to be 'confidential' to allow a proper and due course of investigation.  When you publically report a person without the proper due course, you stigmatize the accused and already set a biased situation against the person and invite the retaliation situation.  It was not simply the bowing to trolls, but also how the president pointed out why it was the decision.  A person who takes offense of a developer's bad taste in jokes and reporting it in such a public fashion, regardless of the intention, still violates the dealing of Sexual Harassment or Harassment in general.

No group can deny that if I were to take a picture of Adria, stating I found some of her jokes referencing pedophilia highly offending, just on my impression as 'questionable' or even more so, not something to report as a blog or tweet.  But then again, we are asked not to have 'double standards'.  People want to be treated fairly and have the expectation of fairness.  The problem I have with a lot of people who feel Adria should be supported are using a double standard to justify it.

The thing is, there is NOTHING out there that justify how to report harassment in a public way.  Again as I point out, the internet itself is full of people who hide behind the mask of anonymity, liking themselves to our Masked Superheros, and will do the wrong things for the 'right' reasons.  And if we haven't learned the fallout of Richard Jewell, 10 year stigma of being tried by the Media as the Olympic Bomber for the 1996 Atlanta Olympics...  Is that trial by media is often colored by those who want things viewed their particular way without all the facts.