Criminal Codex

[shetef]

The final draft is here to be brought before the Deshret for discussion and eventual vote:

Criminal Codex of the Osiris Fraternal Order

§I. Institution and Purpose of the Criminal Codex
i. The Criminal Codex of the Osiris Fraternal Order (hereafter referred to as "the Codex") shall be instated as the fundamental document of Osiran criminal law. Only offenses outlined in this document shall be considered crimes under Osiran law.

§II. Crimes Against Osiris
i. The following shall be classified as "crimes against Osiris".
ii. "Treason" shall be defined as activity, successful or unsuccessful, toward the overthrow of the Osiris Fraternal Order, with or without foreign aid. This may or may not include military action against Osiris.
iii. "Conspiracy" shall be defined as entering into a plot or pact to commit a crime against Osiris or aiding and abetting any individual in the commission of a crime against Osiris.
iv. "Espionage" shall be defined as an attempt, successful or unsuccessful, to disclose information to anyone to whom it is not privy outside the explicit approval of any officers responsible for said information.
vi. "Election Fraud" shall be defined as manipulation of the results or outcome of an election through means which include, but are not limited to, violating official election law or practices, misrepresenting the results of any election, and preventing the proper administration of elections.
vii. "Impersonation" shall be defined as the misrepresentation of one's identity as another known player or as the misrepresentation of oneself as an ambassador or other officeholder of the Osiris Fraternal Order.
viii. "Sedition" shall be defined as discourse which encourages other individuals to commit an off-site offense or crime against Osiris.

§III. Off-site Offenses
i. "Off-site property" shall be defined as any area used by the Osiran community or government of the Osiris Fraternal Order not belonging to the NationStates website (including but not limited to the Osiris Fraternal Order forum). This definition shall also extend to forums or other offsite areas belonging to allies of Osiris.
ii. The following shall be considered "off-site offenses".
iii. "Phishing" shall be defined as attempting to gain access to passwords or to administrative power over a piece of off-site property belonging to the Osiris Fraternal Order by use of impersonation, particularly by posing as a moderator or administrator.
iv. "Crashing" shall be defined as malicious action which prevents the Osiran community or the government of the Osiris Fraternal Order from properly functioning by destroying or damaging off-site property of the Osiris Fraternal Order.
v. "Spamming" shall be defined as any action taken to waste or exceed server capacity or to cause a piece of off-site property to become temporarily inaccessible. This includes excessive levels of page access, account creation, or posting, as well as Denial of Service attacks.
vi. Administrators and moderators of off-site property belonging to the Osiris Fraternal Order shall not be impeded by the government of the Osiris Fraternal Order in the enforcement of rules immediately germane to that property such as Terms of Service.

§IV. Civil Offenses
i. The following shall be classified as "civil offenses".
ii. "Harassment" shall be defined as any communication causing alarm or distress to a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order with malicious intent or intent to intimidate that citizen.
iii. "Defamation" shall be defined as an attack on the character of a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order that is unsubstantiated or unfounded with malicious intent or intent to gain advantage, political or otherwise, over that citizen.

§V. Sentencing
i. The Scribe of Seshat shall detail a recommended sentence for a civil offense or crime against Osiris when presenting cases before the Pschent.
ii. Sentencing for off-site offenses shall be at the recommendation of forum moderation and administration.
iii. Sentences may include, but are not limited to, formal censures or warnings, forum bans, in-game ejections and in-game bans. Forum offenses shall have a minimum sentence of a temporary forum ban.
iv. The Scribe of Seshat shall not have the power to recommend removal of citizenship or a restriction or ban from future citizenship without approval of the Pharaoh.

[Klaus Mikaelson]

No objections from myself.

[Theoden Sebastian]

A couple of things

§I. Institution and Purpose of the Criminal Codex
i. The Criminal Codex of the Osiris Fraternal Order (hereafter referred to as "the Codex") shall be instated as the fundamental document of Osiran criminal law. Only offenses outlined in this document shall be considered crimes under Osiran law.

I wish to clarify the inclusion of the last statement in the provision. Does that mean that the criminal code would be the sole legislative document defining and penalizing crimes? Will it thus be an exclusive enumeration of criminal offenses? Because if that's the case, it would then seem to suggest that the Deshret will be prevented from passing future special laws punishing special crimes.

Secondly, what about offenses violating the terms and conditions/terms of service of the forums? Will they not be included?

EDIT: Thirdly, should we not include already the prescribed penalty for each specific crime punishable under this code?

[shetef]

Josh:

1. The Deshret's power to amend the Codex already exists so it's implicit here. That statemebt is intended to mean that if the Deshret wishes to define further offenses they are to do so via amendment of the Codex.

2. Covered by III.vi. I'd prefer not to legislate ToS violations other than what I've covered here. Administration can handle that without Seshat or the Pschent.

3. Sentencing is something I was hoping the Deshret could help flesh out. I'm all right with presecribing minimum sentences but I would like to give the Pschent some flexibility and wasn't sure how to balance those two concerns myself.

[Treize Dreizehn]

Section II.ii is somewhat clunky here: "any activity... toward the overthrow" Should that read "activities"?

II.vii should probably read, "Impersonation" shall be defined as the willful misrepresentation of one's identity as another known player or the willful misrepresentation of oneself as an ambassador or other officeholder of the Osiris Fraternal Order." Inserting the word willful will help when someone else shows up saying they're Georgie, for example.

I'd fiddle with the definition of Phishing a bit in III.iii: "Phishing" shall be defined as attempting to gain access to passwords or to administrative power over a piece of off-site property belonging to the Osiris Fraternal Order when the person in question has not been granted such access by the forum administrators,"

Remember that impersonation is already a crime in this... we just need to cover phishing there.

I'm... I'm a bit torn on those Civil Offenses. They strike me as unnecessary limits on free speech, but I know they're probably not bad ideas(because I play NS too!). Blah.

[Cormac]

This is definitely a good draft. You and the Priesthood of Seshat did an excellent job.

I do have a few suggestions though.

First, the formatting of this doesn't match the formatting of previous legislation. I think it's important, to avoid confusion and to make things easier on those researching our laws (particularly the future Pschent), that everything be pretty much uniform in its format. Here's the draft as currently written, in the same format as previous legislation:

Spoiler

Criminal Codex of the Osiris Fraternal Order Act

Section 1: Institution and Purpose of the Criminal Codex

1. The Criminal Codex of the Osiris Fraternal Order (hereafter referred to as "the Codex") shall be instated as the fundamental document of Osiran criminal law. Only offenses outlined in this document shall be considered crimes under Osiran law.

Section 2: Crimes Against Osiris

1. The following shall be classified as crimes against Osiris:

(a) "Treason" shall be defined as activity, successful or unsuccessful, toward the overthrow of the Osiris Fraternal Order, with or without foreign aid. This may or may not include military action against Osiris.

(b) "Conspiracy" shall be defined as entering into a plot or pact to commit a crime against Osiris or aiding and abetting any individual in the commission of a crime against Osiris.

(c) "Espionage" shall be defined as an attempt, successful or unsuccessful, to disclose information to anyone to whom it is not privy outside the explicit approval of any officers responsible for said information.

(d) "Election Fraud" shall be defined as manipulation of the results or outcome of an election through means which include, but are not limited to, violating official election law or practices, misrepresenting the results of any election, and preventing the proper administration of elections.

(e) "Impersonation" shall be defined as the misrepresentation of one's identity as another known player or as the misrepresentation of oneself as an ambassador or other officeholder of the Osiris Fraternal Order.

(f) "Sedition" shall be defined as discourse which encourages other individuals to commit an off-site offense or crime against Osiris.

Section 3: Off-site Offenses

1. "Off-site property" shall be defined as any area used by the Osiran community or government of the Osiris Fraternal Order not belonging to the NationStates website (including but not limited to the Osiris Fraternal Order forum). This definition shall also extend to forums or other offsite areas belonging to allies of Osiris.

2. The following shall be considered off-site offenses:

(a) "Phishing" shall be defined as attempting to gain access to passwords or to administrative power over a piece of off-site property belonging to the Osiris Fraternal Order by use of impersonation, particularly by posing as a moderator or administrator.

(b) "Crashing" shall be defined as malicious action which prevents the Osiran community or the government of the Osiris Fraternal Order from properly functioning by destroying or damaging off-site property of the Osiris Fraternal Order.

(c) "Spamming" shall be defined as any action taken to waste or exceed server capacity or to cause a piece of off-site property to become temporarily inaccessible. This includes excessive levels of page access, account creation, or posting, as well as Denial of Service attacks.

3. Administrators and moderators of off-site property belonging to the Osiris Fraternal Order shall not be impeded by the government of the Osiris Fraternal Order in the enforcement of rules immediately germane to that property such as Terms of Service.

Section 4: Civil Offenses

1. The following shall be classified as civil offenses:

(a) "Harassment" shall be defined as any communication causing alarm or distress to a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order with malicious intent or intent to intimidate that citizen.

(b) "Defamation" shall be defined as an attack on the character of a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order that is unsubstantiated or unfounded with malicious intent or intent to gain advantage, political or otherwise, over that citizen.

Section 5: Sentencing

1. The Scribe of Seshat shall detail a recommended sentence for a civil offense or crime against Osiris when presenting cases before the Pschent.

2. Sentencing for off-site offenses shall be at the recommendation of forum moderation and administration.

3. Sentences may include, but are not limited to, formal censures or warnings, forum bans, in-game ejections and in-game bans. Forum offenses shall have a minimum sentence of a temporary forum ban.

4. The Scribe of Seshat shall not have the power to recommend removal of citizenship or a restriction or ban from future citizenship without approval of the Pharaoh.

Now, on to the actual content of the draft:

"Conspiracy" shall be defined as entering into a plot or pact to commit a crime against Osiris or aiding and abetting any individual in the commission of a crime against Osiris.

As currently written and classified, conspiracy would only include conspiracy to commit crimes against Osiris. It would not include conspiracy to commit off-site or civil offenses. Was this intentional?

"Off-site property" shall be defined as any area used by the Osiran community or government of the Osiris Fraternal Order not belonging to the NationStates website (including but not limited to the Osiris Fraternal Order forum). This definition shall also extend to forums or other offsite areas belonging to allies of Osiris.

I have significant issues with this.

First, I'm concerned about "any area . . . including but not limited to the Osiris Fraternal Order forum" and "other offsite areas belonging to allies of Osiris." This can be construed as IRC channels, and I don't think our IRC channel should be legislated as property of the Osiran government (it isn't). Moreover, there is a significant difference between stealing and purging a region's IRC channel and destroying a region's forum. So I think this language needs to be improved.

I'm also concerned with "belonging to allies of Osiris." As currently worded, this would only criminalize destruction of Osiran offsite property or offsite property belonging to allies. That simply isn't the standard throughout NationStates. The standard is that all offsite property destruction is criminalized, without regard for whose property it is. We should be as outraged if someone destroys the Spiritus forum as we would be if someone destroys the forums of Balder and The New Inquisition, even though the former has declared hostilities against us and the latter are our allies, because offsite property destruction is off limits in NationStates. Full stop.

§IV. Civil Offenses
i. The following shall be classified as "civil offenses".
ii. "Harassment" shall be defined as any communication causing alarm or distress to a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order with malicious intent or intent to intimidate that citizen.
iii. "Defamation" shall be defined as an attack on the character of a citizen of the Osiris Fraternal Order that is unsubstantiated or unfounded with malicious intent or intent to gain advantage, political or otherwise, over that citizen.

I think these offenses are too subjective and will result in frivolous prosecutions. Maybe not while you're Scribe of Seshat, but in the long run. While these situations can be unpleasant, personal problems between individuals should remain personal problems between individuals -- unless they cross the line into real life harassment and defamation, in which case action would be taken by the administrative team as that would violate the ToU.

Forum offenses shall have a minimum sentence of a temporary forum ban.

I'm willing to be somewhat more flexible on phishing and spamming, but I think crashing needs to carry a mandatory sentence of permanent ban. While we haven't ratified COPS, the accepted standard throughout mainstream NationStates -- even among those who haven't ratified COPS -- is to provide no harbor to forum destroyers.

That's all I see thus far. Thanks to you and the Priesthood of Seshat for tackling this!

[Theoden Sebastian]

The Deshret's power to amend the Codex already exists so it's implicit here. That statemebt is intended to mean that if the Deshret wishes to define further offenses they are to do so via amendment of the Codex.

Ah I see. So it would be the sole document that defines and punishes crimes then?

Sentencing is something I was hoping the Deshret could help flesh out. I'm all right with presecribing minimum sentences but I would like to give the Pschent some flexibility and wasn't sure how to balance those two concerns myself.

Aye, work on the penalties will be the real tedious part I think. I'd suggest we prescribe minimum and maximum penalties for each crime, and let the Pschent determine what will be the more appropriate punishment in given instances. Doing so will give our Court the flexibility it needs, without sacrificing the legislative intent to hold certain crimes punishable to a certain extent.

So let's get to it, who'd like to start with the penalties:p

[Charles Cerebella]

I read sedition as seduction and was slightly confused....

I agree with Cormac's comments on offsite property and permanent bans for forum destruction.

Regarding civil offences, I think it is important that satire is specifically exempted from falling foul of this. Possibly also from impersonation as well. As written it would be very easy to use these clauses against legitimate satiric newspapers.

[Juris Lancaster]

Section 5: Sentencing

1. The Scribe of Seshat shall detail a recommended sentence for a civil offense or crime against Osiris when presenting cases before the Pschent.

2. Sentencing for off-site offenses shall be at the recommendation of forum moderation and administration.

3. Sentences may include, but are not limited to, formal censures or warnings, suspension of rights, forum bans, in-game ejections, removal of citizenship, and in-game bans. Off-site Forum offenses shall have a minimum sentence of a temporary forum ban.

4. The Scribe of Seshat shall not have the power to recommend removal of citizenship, or a restriction or ban from future citizenship without approval of the Pharaoh.

These are the only real edits as far as the current text is concerned. I'm not going to be nit-picky. However, I am surprised that some crimes are not listed here, such as bribery or or blackmail.

So with my edits done, I would like to point out some things.

1. We have election fraud, why do we not have regular fraud? It seems kind of odd to include something specific like that, without also having the wider charge in the codex.

2. I would like the possibility to see that Off-site offences could be worded in such a fashion that if crashers are fleeing from justice to Osiris, then we could charge them with these offenses, instead of just applying these laws to ourselves.

3. The Pschent or the Seshat should create a schedule of offenses, and detail out a recommended sentence for each offense. I would not be surprised if later on, as the criminal code is added to, that the recommendations change as more serious or lesser serious offenses are added.

4. Something to keep in mind is that we will want the court to remain as active as possible. The more work that you are able to give them, the better. So, being open with the parameters of the court is far from a bad thing.

First, I'm concerned about "any area . . . including but not limited to the Osiris Fraternal Order forum" and "other offsite areas belonging to allies of Osiris." This can be construed as IRC channels, and I don't think our IRC channel should be legislated as property of the Osiran government (it isn't). Moreover, there is a significant difference between stealing and purging a region's IRC channel and destroying a region's forum. So I think this language needs to be improved.

While this idea of separation between the regional government and the off-site property like #osi may be a good sounding idea, its not really safe in practice. If persons are committing crimes and/or planning crimes on IRC, they would be outside the reach of the Pschent and our laws, because the Court would have no authority to act on what happens there simply because that place is not part of the region.

[Cormac]

First, I agree with Juris's suggested edits in green.

1. We have election fraud, why do we not have regular fraud? It seems kind of odd to include something specific like that, without also having the wider charge in the codex.

This is not a bad idea. Certainly we need to cover fraud on citizenship applications, at least, as Charles had pointed out in the Applications Administration Act drafting thread.

2. I would like the possibility to see that Off-site offences could be worded in such a fashion that if crashers are fleeing from justice to Osiris, then we could charge them with these offenses, instead of just applying these laws to ourselves.

While I'm open to this edit, I did want to point out that crashers attempting to flee to Osiris will already be denied citizenship by the administrative team on forum security grounds. If they have already crashed another forum, they are certainly a compelling risk to the security of this forum.

3. The Pschent or the Seshat should create a schedule of offenses, and detail out a recommended sentence for each offense. I would not be surprised if later on, as the criminal code is added to, that the recommendations change as more serious or lesser serious offenses are added.

I somewhat agree with this. I agree that sentencing should remain somewhat flexible to give the Pschent more flexibility, but I do think that minimum sentences -- at least for some of the more serious offenses, certainly for off-site offenses -- should be mandatory rather than recommended.

4. Something to keep in mind is that we will want the court to remain as active as possible. The more work that you are able to give them, the better. So, being open with the parameters of the court is far from a bad thing.

This I do not agree with. While I would like to see members of the court remain active so that we'll know they will be active when it comes time for a trial, I do not personally want to see much activity in the Pschent itself. I don't want to see us define so many things as crimes that we constantly have citizens being frivolously prosecuted, and I don't want to see constant legal disputes, just for the sake of Pschent activity. That kind of activity isn't healthy for a region.

While this idea of separation between the regional government and the off-site property like #osi may be a good sounding idea, its not really safe in practice. If persons are committing crimes and/or planning crimes on IRC, they would be outside the reach of the Pschent and our laws, because the Court would have no authority to act on what happens there simply because that place is not part of the region.

You raise a good point here. I would be fine with language that makes clear that commission of these crimes in other locations besides the forum can still be prosecuted, but it needs to be made clear that the IRC channel is not the property of the Osiran government. I believe that the government can have prosecutorial jurisdiction over a particular medium without owning that medium.