Question about documents allowed on ATS

I want to create a thread asking for help to make sense of court case documents but first I wanted to make sure what the rules were about posting court case documents. I'm not sure if posting it would be in violation of posting about private citizens or if because of the document, the person is no longer considered a private citizen.

If I can't post the documents online, am I at least allowed to ask for help to understand the documents?

a reply to: Margana

I have a couple of thoughts.

One is that I note on some FOIA documents, the names of private citizens are often redacted (blacked out or whited out) on the documents. So if in doubt, that is one option.

Another thought is, does it involve a conspiracy? This is a conspiracy site, and if so it would probably be on topic here. If not, and you're looking for legal interpretation, there may be forums used by law students etc where you may get better interpretations. Seems like I've run across them in the past on random legal topics but I don't remember the names of any of them.

a reply to: Arbitrageur

Thanks for the advice. I will check out your advice on asking law students.
If it is a conspiracy, it wouldn't be of the norm that is usually on here

Posting the private information of citizens is against the T&C.

If anything, court documents are also subject to laws that may prevent their publication legally. For further information or advice, you may forward the information you want to post to staff and we will vet it for T&C purposes.

~Tenth

originally posted by: tothetenthpower
Posting the private information of citizens is against the T&C.

If anything, court documents are also subject to laws that may prevent their publication legally. For further information or advice, you may forward the information you want to post to staff and we will vet it for T&C purposes.

~Tenth

What if the documents were online? that's where I found them, on google

a reply to: Margana

Irrelevant. I can find name address phone number email info for millions of people via a search. We don't want that sort of info published here.

originally posted by: yeahright
a reply to: Margana

Irrelevant. I can find name address phone number email info for millions of people via a search. We don't want that sort of info published here.

I was only asking because I am unsure what makes a private citizen not private any more & able to be discussed on here. No Mod has answered me & I've asked many

a reply to: Margana

The guidelines I've used are generally similar to what Wikipedia uses for "Notable People".

Wikipedia generally deletes articles written about someone who hasn't met their standards of notability.

On ATS, the ultimate decision would rest with the ATS owners and I'm not sure if they agree with the Wikipedia standards, but I haven't run into any conflicts using that criterion so far.

If there's no Wikipedia article about the person I'd consider them private. If there is one, then they might be public enough to talk about but I'm not a mod so my view doesn't represent ATS and even if it was true generally, there could be exceptions. Did you ask mods generally, or give them a specific name? Answering the question generally might be difficult, but deciding on a specific name should be far easier.

a reply to: Arbitrageur
Thank you, I will take a look at the information you provided.

I asked a couple mods directly & even asked in the way that is sent to all Mods but I have not heard a response back.

I only ask because say Bob Smith, (random name for example), is a private citizen, but if Bob Smith is suddenly talked about in the media, does that make him a non private citizen? I'm unsure of what it takes to turn a private citizen into one that can be talked about on here.

I was hoping a Mod or two would have answered so that I could avoid this mishap in the first place but alas the Mods don't seem to like to clarify things, just review the T&C & if you have any questions, too bad.

a reply to: Margana
When you do get around to reading the link I provided you can see that even at Wikipedia the standards for notability are not crystal clear and can involve discussion and consensus by the community, but you'll see they've also given it a lot of thought.

I've been talked about in the media when I received an honor but there's no Wikipedia article about me and I'm still a private citizen so the media appearance isn't sufficient.

a reply to: Margana

See if this helps.

We don't want to put ANYONE'S personally identifiable information on here. Not Joe Blow, not Mr Famous.

There is a difference between discussing someone who appears in the news and posting and/or linking info including addresses, phone numbers, emails, that sort of thing. Whether it's readily available elsewhere or not. We don't want it here. Discussing someone in the news and posting things like contact info about them are two very different things, and we've seen that happen. Which is bad.

Now making a blanket hard and fast rule about everything is a near impossible task. We don't want the T&C to be any more unwieldy than it already is, and none of us want to try to wade through something that looks like the tax code to clarify every possible circumstance.

As a staffer suggested above, if you have a question about something specific, send it to staff for a determination.

And that's about as clear as I can make it.

Asked and Answered.


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