[Ambassadors] Enforcing the code of conduct

[Jared K. Smith]

On Wed, Jul 15, 2015 at 9:16 AM, Amit Shah <amitshah at gmx.net> wrote:

> I was wondering if we have any mechanisms in place where we can blacklist
> someone if indeed there was a violation.
>
> I'm thinking of a Fedora project specific blacklist as well as a shared
> blacklist for major conferences worldwide.
>


I am not an attorney, and don't play one on the internet, and this is not
legal advice....   That being said, one aspect that people often overlook
in "Code of Conduct" discussions is the legal liabilities involved.  Let's
say person A organizes a conference and decides (for whatever reason) that
person B needs to be banned.  Person B comes back later (or next year, or
three years down the road) -- who is responsible to check to make sure
person B hasn't been blacklisted?  Who is responsible to check to make sure
person B isn't registering under a different name?  If person B were to do
something illegal upon returning, person A might have additional legal
liabilities.

I mention all this not to discourage the use of codes of conduct -- but to
help people remember that trying to ban someone might incur additional
responsibilities (and liabilities), which might be hard on a loosely-formed
mostly-volunteer group.  It's unfortunate that we live in such a litigious
society... and that it's harder to do the right thing because of it.

-Jared
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