====================================================================== CFJ 871 Statement: On or about 20 April 1996, Morendil committed the Crime of Misrepresentation, by posting to the Public Forum a message which e did not specifically disclaim as possibly incorrect, but which e knew or should reasonably have known to contain falsifications. ====================================================================== Board of Appeals: Decision: Steve FALSE ElJefe FALSE (Jtael) Defaulted Chuck FALSE Final Judgement: FALSE Original Judge: Zefram Original Judgement: TRUE Caller: Kelly Barred: Morendil On Hold: Swann Eligible: Andre, Chuck, elJefe, favor, Jtael, Michael, Murphy, Narcisse, Oerjan, Steve, Vanyel, Zefram ====================================================================== History: Called by Kelly, Mon, 29 Apr 96 17:26:15 EST5 Assigned to Zefram, Tue, 30 Apr 1996 09:26:27 -0400 Judged TRUE by Zefram, Mon, 6 May 1996 00:40:36 +0100 (BST) Appealed by Morendil, Mon, 6 May 1996 13:47:29 +0100 Appealed by Andre, Mon, 6 May 96 14:30:32 METDST Appealed by Michael, Wed, 8 May 96 11:16:17 BST Assigned to Steve as Justice, Wed, 8 May 1996 14:11:45 -0400 Assigned to ElJefe as Justice, Wed, 8 May 1996 14:11:45 -0400 Assigned to Jtael as Justice, Wed, 8 May 1996 14:11:45 -0400 Judged FALSE by Steve, Tue, 14 May 1996 13:41:45 +1000 (EST) Judged FALSE by ElJefe, Tue, 14 May 96 09:27:58 EDT Defaulted by Jtael, Wed, 15 May 1996 14:11:45 -0400 Assigned to Chuck as Justice, Fri 17 May 1996 9:43:11 GMT Judged FALSE by Chuck, Thu 23 May 1996 21:51:54 -0500 (CDT) ====================================================================== Argument: Defendant's message (Exh. A) alleges that on or about 20 April 1996, the Regulations of Morendil's Feline Orphanage were amended solely by the deletion of the four so-called "temporary" regulations. It has recently been revealed that Defendant was less than truthful in this disclosure; the Ordinances were also amended at the same time to include another Ordinance, known as the Immaculate Ordinance (Exh. B). It can be argued that Defendant's message does not specifically claim that the reported changes are all the changes. Petitioner disputes this argument. Had Defendant made no statement at all about what the nature of the changes were, or if eir statement had been clearly vague or incomplete, Petitioner would agree that it would not be reasonable to assume that Defendant's statement did not completely represent the nature of the changes to the Regulations. However, Defendant's statement appears to be a complete representation of the changes made, and Petitioner suspects most reasonable people would believe that it was a complete representation of the changes. Therefore, Defendant knew or should have reasonable know that the effect of eir message was to import that the only change to the Regulations was the aforementioned deletion, when in fact there were other changes. Thus eir message misrepresented the truth of the matter. The emoticon at the end of Defendant's message lends support to the principle that Defendant expected his message to be misinterpreted as a complete representation; this also establishes intent to misrepresent by omission. Both a later message from Defendant in response to Petitioner's interrogatory (Exh. C) and another discussionary message from Defendant suggest further that e expected, and even desired, such misinterpretation. It seems clear that Defendant believed that eir post contained incorrect information. Defendant cannot successfully argue that e was not aware of the differing truth of the matter, because e was necessarily aware of the exact nature of the changes as Contestmaster of Morendil's Feline Orphanage. CFJ 827 established that the failure to disclaim a post as containing possibly incorrect information lends a presumption of correctness to the contents of that message, so there is no defense on the claim that the information was not presented as correct. Rule 1497/3 prescribes that any Player who presents as correct information which e believes to be incorrect as part of any message sent to the Public Forum [...] commits the Crime of Misrepresentation, a Class C Crime. It is therefore Petitioner's allegation that Defendant did commit the Crime of Misrepresentation by eir post. Petitioner prays that the Court, in accordance with the Rules and the principles of Justice, find the Defendant guilty of this Crime and impose the appropriate punishment. I affirm that the abovegoing statements and representations are true. Kelly Martin 29 April 1996 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Exh. A: From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date sent: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 10:20:05 +0100 Subject: BUS: Changes to Orphanage Regs Priority: normal Send reply to: nomic-discussion@teleport.com The Regulations of the Contest known as Morendil's Feline Orphanage have changed - regulations temp A) through temp D) have been Repealed. ;) BTW, doesn't the Contestmaster have to send a copy of the Regs to someone when they change ? I can't find it anywhere in the Rules, so for the moment I'm not going to spam the list with it... -[Morendil]- This tagline reserved for internal kernel use. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Exh. B: (taken from Evidence in CFJ 867) From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: morendil@micronet.fr Date sent: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 18:30:43 +0100 Subject: Morendil's Feline Orphanage - New Regs Priority: normal The Regulations of the Feline Orphanage are now as follows : 1) Any willing Player may become the Contestmaster in the event that the former Contestmaster deregisters. Player Morendil shall become Contestmaster at any time upon request in the event that e ever ceases to be so. 2) The Entry Fee for this Contest shall be 0 Marks. 3) Other Players may become Contestants of this Contest, also known as Donators, by transferring to the Contest Fund, in addition to the Entry Fee, a donation of one Mark or one Cat Food, subject to approval by the Contestmaster. The Contestmaster may at any time expel a Donator for conduct unworthy of a Cat-respecting Player. 4) These Regulations may be changed at any time by the consent of a two-thirds majority of the Donators, or by the Contestmaster if there are no Donators. The Contestmaster shall have sole authority to conduct any deliberations and votes on proposed changes to the Regulations. 5) The Currencies in the Contest Fund shall be at the disposal of the Contestmaster to spend as e sees fit to further the goals of the Contest, to wit : * provide a warm, caring environment for Cats bereft of their Owners, * disseminate to Cat-Owning Players any information relevant to the proper care and feeding of Cats, * generally promote discussion of Cats in the Agoran Community. In particular, any Donator shall be authorized to require the transfer of one Cat Food from the Fund to eir own Treasury, provided this does not reduce the Fund's Cat Foods holdings to below two. No more than one such transfer shall be possible in any given Week, and only if the requesting Player owns a Cat and is not currently the Executor of any Entity owning a Treasury which contains at least one Cat Food. To replenish the Fund, the Contestmaster may at any time call for a Collection. Donators who fail to transfer one Mark, or one Cat Food, to the Fund within four days of the announcement of the Collection shall no longer be authorized to draw on the Fund's Currencies. ** The "Immaculate" Regulation ** At the time this Regulation is created, one Mark is transferred from Player Morendil to the Fund, which the Speaker at that time shall detect and report. Whenever a Player Goes Completely Blotto, that Player shall detect and report the following transfers, which happen at the time that Player Goes Completely Blotto : one Mark is transferred from the Fund to the Contestmaster, immediately after which one Mark is transferred from the Contestmaster to the Fund. That Player is thereafter Completely Blotto until one of the following happens : * that Player spends Points to erase all eir Blots; * the Contestmaster decides so. If at any time and for any reason, any Player other than the Contestmaster is not Completely Blotto, then that Player shall immediately Go Completely Blotto. The Contestmaster shall never Go Completely Blotto, any part of this or any other SLC notwithstanding. -[Morendil]- Please stand by for total destruction of your planet. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Exh. C: Comments: Authenticated sender is Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 22:49:13 +0100 Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.20) Sender: owner-nomic-discussion@teleport.com Reply-To: nomic-discussion@teleport.com Precedence: bulk From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-discussion@teleport.com Subject: Re: BUS: query for Morendil Kelly sez: > Morendil: at what time was the "Immaculate Regulation" created? also, At the Date: header of the message included as evidence for the relevant CFJ (well, in fact, a couple of hours earlier, but since the only thing that marks a clear delineation between that Reg being an evil gleam in my eye and being "officially" added to MFO's Regs is that same message, that'll have to serve). > have you ever decided that a Completely Blotto Player is no longer > Completely Blotto? Never had to, not likely to. :) -[Morendil]- On a clear disk you can seek forever ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Exh. D: Comments: Authenticated sender is Date: Mon, 29 Apr 1996 22:49:13 +0100 Priority: normal X-mailer: Pegasus Mail for Windows (v2.20) Sender: owner-nomic-discussion@teleport.com Reply-To: nomic-discussion@teleport.com Precedence: bulk From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-discussion@teleport.com Subject: Re: more comments re Morendil's CFJ Kelly sez: > i cannot find any evidence that Morendil ever posted the Regulation > which requires the Speaker or a "Completely Blotto" Player to report > these transfers. therefore, Rule 1538 would prevent _any_ Player > (other than Morendil) from being required to abide by it--even if it > otherwise applied to em, which it doesn't, by virtue of not being > within the Jurisdiction of that instrument. That text was available under the same provisions as any other SLC or Compact - it was duly produced upon request within a period of seven days. I even documented, to the PF, the fact that the Regs had been modified (message follows), which any interested Player could then have requested under FOIA. ;) ------ From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date sent: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 10:20:05 +0100 Subject: BUS: Changes to Orphanage Regs Priority: normal Send reply to: nomic-discussion@teleport.com The Regulations of the Contest known as Morendil's Feline Orphanage have changed - regulations temp A) through temp D) have been Repealed. ;) BTW, doesn't the Contestmaster have to send a copy of the Regs to someone when they change ? I can't find it anywhere in the Rules, so for the moment I'm not going to spam the list with it... -[Morendil]- This tagline reserved for internal kernel use. -[Morendil]- Walk through doors, don't crawl through Windows. ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ -- kelly martin The real aliment, however, seems to me to lie in the attitude which was created by the World War and which dominates all our actions; namely, the belief that we must in peacetime so organize our whole life and work that in the event of war we would be sure of victory. -- Albert Einstein ====================================================================== Decision of Judge Zefram: TRUE Kelly's analysis is exhaustive and convincing. I see three primary points to the argument: (1) There can be no question that Morendil intended eir statement in plaintiff's exhibit A to be interpreted as an accurate and complete statement of the changes to the Regulations of Morendil's Feline Orphanage. Exhibits B and C, combined with the emoticon in exhibit A, substantiate that. Further, CFJ 827 establishes that the presumption is generally to be that information posted to the Public Forum is presented as correct. (2) I agree with the plaintiff that the statement in exhibit A would be interpreted by any reasonable Agoran as being presented as an accurate and complete statement of the changes to the Regulations of MFO. While the phrasing used could, in some cases, be interpreted as merely a vague description of, or even merely a comment upon, the Regulation changes, I contend that such usage is primarily verbal. Further, in this case, a complete description would be expected; and even taking the statement as a vague description, it omits to mention a major feature of the changes to the Regulations. For these reasons, I find that Morendil presented eir statement that "regulations temp A) through temp D) have been Repealed" as correct, within the meaning of TIA. Further, e presented the implication that no other changes were made at the same time as correct. (3) Morendil's message reproduced in exhibit B is of much more rigorous wording than exhibit A, and I therefore consider it more authoritative. It states, and to my mind establishes, that the changes to the Regulations of MFO included the addition of "the Immaculate Regulation". I therefore find that the Regulation Amendments in question were of the nature implied by exhibit B, in contrast to the statement in exhibit A. Therefore, Morendil committed the Crime of Misrepresentation on 20th April 1996, in posting the message reproduced as exhibit A. ====================================================================== Injunction: The Prescribed Words for Morendil's Formal Apology are: autonomous nomenclature pneumonoultramicroscopicsilicovolcanoconiosis shrubbery sponge wibble ====================================================================== ====================================================================== Decision of Justice Steve: FALSE I overturn Zefram's Judgement, finding the Statement FALSE. Although there was nothing wrong with Judge Zefram's reasoning from his premises, I am now convinced that these premises were mistaken in fact. However, Judge Zefram is not to be held responsible for this error, since Morendil's statements up to the time Zefram delivered his Judgement were ambiguous, and it is only through having sought and obtained subsequent clarification from Morendil in the form of a sworn affidavit in the Public Forum, that it has been possible to resolve the ambiguity. Morendil's new testimony (in Exhibit E, see Evidence attached) does not contradict any of his prior statements; it merely resolves an ambiguity in them. Therefore we have no reason to doubt its veracity. That testimony indicates that the Immaculate Regulation was added to the Regulations of Morendil's Feline Orphanage only after his post to the Public Forum announcing the deletion of the Temporary Regulations. Hence that post did not mislead by suggesting, as alleged, that an amendment (the addition of the Immaculate Regulation) had not occurred which had in fact occurred. It could not so mislead, since the amendment in question had not yet been effected. Hence I Judge the Statement FALSE. Steve Gardner | Some people lose their sense of Dept. of Philosophy, Monash Uni. | perspective. I've lost my sense gardner@aurora.cc.monash.edu.au | of scale. -- Will Self ====================================================================== Decision of Justice ElJefe: FALSE I judge FALSE. According to Morendil's chronology of events, he changed the regs to include "the Immaculate regulation" after Message A and before Message B. Thus the information presented in the message to the PF (A) was believed by Morendil to be correct, and was in fact correct at the time it was sent. I remark that Morendil's other evidence (Message D) gave the impression (though without explicitly stating it) that the Immaculate Regulation was inserted before Message A. It claimed that Players could have used Rule 1064 to request the Regs (including the Immaculate one) after being notified (by Message A) that the Regs had changed. This cannot have been true the first few moments moment after Message A was sent, because assuming Morendil's Chronology there was a gap between Message A and the creation of the Immaculate Regulation. I do believe that it was just this phrasing in Message D that led to this CFJ. Does Message D violate Rule 1497? I don't believe so. It's not a Crime to be confused. ----------------------------------------------------------------- Exhibit E: From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date: Mon, 13 May 1996 19:49:57 +0100 Subject: BUS: Statement on MFO's Regs The following is the complete history of the Regulations of the Contest known as Morendil's Feline Orphanage, hereinafter referred to as 'MFO'. The Contestmaster of MFO has been, continuously since the Contest's creation, Player Morendil. Thu, 29 Feb 1996 01:06:13 +0100 MFO is created by the posting to the Public Forum of its complete Regulations, under the headers hereafter included as Exh. A. Its Regulations consist of Articles 1) thru 5). Thu, 4 Apr 1996 01:50:23 +0100 The Regulations of MFO are amended by the posting to the Public Forum, under the headers hereafter included as Exh. B, of four new Regulations entitled Temp A) thru Temp D). Sat, 20 Apr 1996 10:20:05 +0100 The Regulations of MFO are amended by the posting to the Public Forum of the announcement of the Repeal of Regulations Temp A) thru Temp D). Sat, 20 Apr 1996 18:30:43 +0100 The Regulations of MFO are amended by the posting of a self-adressed message containing the complete Regulations, including a newly-enacted Regulation titled [** The "Immaculate" Regulation **]. The Regulations of MFO were not changed in writing at any time other than the dates above. I affirm under penalty of perjury that the above statements and representations are true. Player Morendil Exh. A --- From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date sent: Thu, 29 Feb 1996 01:06:13 +0100 Subject: BUS: New Contest : Morendil's Feline Orphanage Priority: normal Send reply to: nomic-discussion@teleport.com --- Exh. B --- From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date sent: Thu, 4 Apr 1996 01:50:23 +0100 Subject: BUS: Emergency Collection Priority: normal Send reply to: nomic-discussion@teleport.com --- Exh. C --- From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: nomic-business@teleport.com Date sent: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 10:20:05 +0100 Subject: BUS: Changes to Orphanage Regs Priority: normal Send reply to: nomic-discussion@teleport.com --- Exh. D --- From: "Laurent Bossavit" To: morendil@micronet.fr Date sent: Sat, 20 Apr 1996 18:30:43 +0100 Subject: Morendil's Feline Orphanage - New Regs Priority: normal --- ====================================================================== Decision of Justice Chuck: FALSE I agree with Justice Steve's reasoning, and there is little I could add. I would only like to note that a statement made by Morendil in Exhibit D is misleading: > I even documented, to the PF, the fact that the Regs had > been modified (message follows), which any interested Player could > then have requested under FOIA. ;) The documentation in the PF followed the deletion of the temporary Regs, but preceded the addition of the Immaculate Reg; Morendil implies that the PF announcement was an announcement of the addition of the Immaculate Reg. However, this does not affect the Judgement. ======================================================================