...But censorship is increasingly being thrusted upon us whether we like it or not. Vevo is a pile of shit because every single song from Vevo is censored ... I am not a child, it seems that the majority of governments and private orgranisations are turning the world into a nanny state.
A person's willingness to listen to censored music has no bearing on whether that person is a child or adult. Vimeo also has little to do with nanny states. Do you know why Vimeo exists? Because they provide a service people want. Part of that service is exposing an artists music to as broad an audience as it can which requires certain precautions to be taken to facilitate this. If you don't like it, that is most likely because you are not part of the audience Vimeo is trying to appeal to and should find an alternative that allows you to listen to the music in its unedited form.
Your statement above is flawed for another reason as well. When the United States government censors a portion of its population that is often a violation of our first amendment rights. When a business censors its own product without a government mandate, that is actually the business exercising their own right to free speech. It is their product, they own (or control) it, and they can present it however they wish.
I was banned. Now, if you take a look through my game history, I have been involved in some pretty good e-fights which have involved everything under the sun except for the word fag ... like ugh ... mother fucking cunt nugget - that will not get me banned because swearing is not against the ToS.
I assume you mean the Terms of Use, Battle.net does not have a ToS. Using profanity like that can get you banned because all harassment is against the Terms of Use. What will not get you banned is using profanity in the presence of someone who doesn't care, or doesn't know how to report it. Here are the relevant statement copied from the Terms of use:
"BLIZZARD MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE ACCOUNTS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. Accounts terminated by Blizzard for any type of abuse, including without limitation a violation of these Terms of Use, will not be reactivated for any reason. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most account suspensions, terminations and/or deletions are the result of violations of this TOU, a Game EULA or other Blizzard policy.."
But 'fag' consitutes "sexual orientation" which is a load of shit if there was ever one. Americans are so worried about being sued that everything is being censored where in Australian Culture it is acceptable. We had a case where a Policeman took a man to court because the man called the cop a prick, the judge agreed that the cop was being a prick and it was thrown out. Another case where the cops took another guy to court cause he told them to 'fuck off' and again it was ruled perfectly acceptable to be used, since those two cases I have not heard of any others making it to court.
Here in the United States if a police officer is called a prick, that case never goes to trial because nothing illegal has happened. Simply calling someone a name isn't illegal... however that does not mean people have a free pass to go anywhere and say anything because there are other rights that must be taken into consideration.
Battle.net is private property. Blizzard or Activision owns it and they can choose to let people use it and exclude people from using it for any reason or even for no reason (as mentioned above). Here in the United States if someone walks into a restaurant and starts harassing the other guests the owner (or an agent of the owner) can kick the person out. If he refuses to leave the police can be called and they'll forcibly remove him and charge him for trespassing because he was violating another person's property rights.
Blizzard wants their online service to be a family friendly environment which is why they have a code of conduct. This enables people to report violators which (Blizzard believes) has the over all impact of improving the online community.
This kind of Blizzard censorship is wrong, because fully grown adults who are more than capable of being called a name and shrugging it off, are getting thrown in with 11 year old kids and being forced to live by their rules.
Trying to assert your opinion on someone else's personal/private property is wrong. No one has forced you to buy and play the game, you have chosen to. The rules aren't some big secret, they pop up before you login to Battle.net for the first time and are easily found if you spend a minute on the blizzard support site.
Granted this ban was only tied to my NA account and I could still use SEA, but seeing SEA is dead it was as effective as banning me from Starcraft for a single use of a word that no one in their right mind (ie, their head is not up their asses) should be offended by?
You said it was your second offense which means you were warned the first time you used the word.
This is over the top censorship that should be illegal.
No it shouldn't. Blizzard shells out a lot of money to keep Battle.net running and updated. They want it to be a place where all kinds of people can come together and play games without worrying about real life issues and differences. I don't blame them for their policies and I think their policies do make battle.net a more enjoyable place to play.
All that said though, I do agree with you in that a word, insult, or slur only has the power each individual person gives it. Life is too short to let petty words have power over your feelings and I'll never understand why so many people allow them to shape their lives and personalities. In the future I'd advise against insulting trolls with profanity. Most likely they are just baiting you ready to report you for the violation.
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A person's willingness to listen to censored music has no bearing on whether that person is a child or adult. Vimeo also has little to do with nanny states. Do you know why Vimeo exists? Because they provide a service people want. Part of that service is exposing an artists music to as broad an audience as it can which requires certain precautions to be taken to facilitate this. If you don't like it, that is most likely because you are not part of the audience Vimeo is trying to appeal to and should find an alternative that allows you to listen to the music in its unedited form.
Your statement above is flawed for another reason as well. When the United States government censors a portion of its population that is often a violation of our first amendment rights. When a business censors its own product without a government mandate, that is actually the business exercising their own right to free speech. It is their product, they own (or control) it, and they can present it however they wish.
I assume you mean the Terms of Use, Battle.net does not have a ToS. Using profanity like that can get you banned because all harassment is against the Terms of Use. What will not get you banned is using profanity in the presence of someone who doesn't care, or doesn't know how to report it. Here are the relevant statement copied from the Terms of use:
"BLIZZARD MAY SUSPEND, TERMINATE, MODIFY, OR DELETE ACCOUNTS AT ANY TIME FOR ANY REASON OR FOR NO REASON, WITH OR WITHOUT NOTICE TO YOU. Accounts terminated by Blizzard for any type of abuse, including without limitation a violation of these Terms of Use, will not be reactivated for any reason. For purposes of explanation and not limitation, most account suspensions, terminations and/or deletions are the result of violations of this TOU, a Game EULA or other Blizzard policy.."
and this one from the Starcraft 2 harassment policies:
Is crude and offensive in nature Is an inappropriate reference to human anatomy or bodily functions Is pornographic in nature
Here in the United States if a police officer is called a prick, that case never goes to trial because nothing illegal has happened. Simply calling someone a name isn't illegal... however that does not mean people have a free pass to go anywhere and say anything because there are other rights that must be taken into consideration.
Battle.net is private property. Blizzard or Activision owns it and they can choose to let people use it and exclude people from using it for any reason or even for no reason (as mentioned above). Here in the United States if someone walks into a restaurant and starts harassing the other guests the owner (or an agent of the owner) can kick the person out. If he refuses to leave the police can be called and they'll forcibly remove him and charge him for trespassing because he was violating another person's property rights.
Blizzard wants their online service to be a family friendly environment which is why they have a code of conduct. This enables people to report violators which (Blizzard believes) has the over all impact of improving the online community.
Trying to assert your opinion on someone else's personal/private property is wrong. No one has forced you to buy and play the game, you have chosen to. The rules aren't some big secret, they pop up before you login to Battle.net for the first time and are easily found if you spend a minute on the blizzard support site.
You said it was your second offense which means you were warned the first time you used the word.
No it shouldn't. Blizzard shells out a lot of money to keep Battle.net running and updated. They want it to be a place where all kinds of people can come together and play games without worrying about real life issues and differences. I don't blame them for their policies and I think their policies do make battle.net a more enjoyable place to play.
All that said though, I do agree with you in that a word, insult, or slur only has the power each individual person gives it. Life is too short to let petty words have power over your feelings and I'll never understand why so many people allow them to shape their lives and personalities. In the future I'd advise against insulting trolls with profanity. Most likely they are just baiting you ready to report you for the violation.