> Don't forget that people actually have the right to be sexist, defamatory or racist.
Yeah, right. Try being sexist, defamatory or racist in the workplace and see how your contract covers you. Try being sexist, defamatory or racist on a public internet forum and see how the forum's or your ISP's conditions of use work. Try getting up in a public place and being sexist, defamatory or racist and see how you go with the police.
People have the right to their own thoughts, which I think is where you're coming from. But public behaviour is what's in question here. And I'll bet you a beer that Ulrich's contract with Red Hat allows them to fire him for being sexist, defamatory or racist in public.
And even if there is some specific condition where being sexist, defamatory or racist is allowed, I still reckon it's bad behaviour. I don't care if someone is a thousand times better at coding than anyone else, being rude and obnoxious to other people is bad for that person,for the projects they work for and for the community they're involved in.
So to me it seems pretty counterproductive to hide behind some technical legal argument to excuse behaviour which, as I said originally, is completely unnecessary and caused Ulrich more hassle rather than less.
Posted May 8, 2009 18:08 UTC (Fri) by khim (subscriber, #9252)
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Yeah, right. Try being sexist, defamatory or racist in the
workplace and see how your contract covers you.
If you are working for US Company - it'll be written in contract. In
other countries it's free right (some European countries are emulation US
but to smaller degree). You can be fired if you disrupt the team,
but just for being sexist or racist? Puhlease. When our company was bought
by US one we had special sessions to explain exactly what natural things
(like sexist jokes or jokes about other minorities) we shouldn't do from
now on. Everyone agreed that it's idiotic, but hey - these guys are paying
me, they establish rules.
Try being sexist, defamatory or racist on a public internet
forum and see how the forum's or your ISP's conditions of use
work.
Probably you are visiting totally different forms from me - because I'm
seeing sexist, defamatory and racist remarks quite often. And not just from
trolls. Again: if we are not talking about US where (as Heinlein noted
half-sentury ago) everyone is so proud to point out that they have
absolutely nothing against your skin color, face or sexual
orientation...
Try getting up in a public place and being sexist, defamatory
or racist and see how you go with the police.
For being sexist? This is a joke. For being defamatory or racist...
possibility is there but you need to spend A LOT OF effort to reach this
point.