DS9: Business as Usual

[Yukaphile]

The argument is moot, legally speaking, since Photons Be Free was conceived in a non-commercial holodeck and distributed out among the masses, including the likeness of the Voyager crew. Morally speaking is a lot trickier.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

That usually involves sneaking around, not literally conjuring a projection of force fields and light into existence.

Sneaking around doesn't serve to describe the weight of the action. An ex lover who releases a tape is committing revenge porn, it's been in the news lately in California. Video images today are projections of light. The main difference for consideration would be that the force fields aren't lifted from actual events. Which, sure is a fair point for consideration.

It wasn't meant to be a legal precedent based on today's legal policies either, but how matters of privacy are considered generally in a judicial lens. So I mean regardless of Bijoran space's specific rules we're talking about general judicial consideration.

Back to depiction of actual events though, likeness does come into play. Obviously a lookalike porn star doesn't really equate to a likeness or defamation circumstance, but then there's also if they adopted the same exact name.

The argument is moot, legally speaking, since Photons Be Free was conceived in a non-commercial holodeck and distributed out among the masses, including the likeness of the Voyager crew. Morally speaking is a lot trickier.

They weren't going to sue the doctor lol. They were just pissed at him. Then it was brought to his attention by Paris and he came to understand. That episode had my favorite outburst in the show.

The doctor also made considerable changes to the characters.

[Yukaphile]

Okay, I'll concede to that circumstance as well. Still, they were technically taken with consent at the time, and beyond that, then it becomes an issue of sneaking around.

I was just responding to the guy above who thinks the Enterprise-D, as a starship, was somehow an exception to something like DS9, when I don't think it is. Then again, Trek isn't always consistent on stuff like that.

[BridgeConsoleMasher]

Well I guess more emphasis should be placed on the discriminant damages lol. Law's not about the honorous judgements of the person committing the crime, just their willing intent and the damages it causes.

Really though at this point, I'm not even certain that Quark's holograms would constitute likeness violations based on our constructs. No legal expert, but maybe it might have to do with innate qualities lifted. I'm not really certain the legal framework surrounding celebrity vagina molds sold as sex toys etc... But even then I'd imagine some major disputes in the wrong circumstance.

[FaxModem1]

Okay, I'll concede to that circumstance as well. Still, they were technically taken with consent at the time, and beyond that, then it becomes an issue of sneaking around.

I was just responding to the guy above who thinks the Enterprise-D, as a starship, was somehow an exception to something like DS9, when I don't think it is. Then again, Trek isn't always consistent on stuff like that.

I think a key difference might be that Barclay, for instance, didn't intend to publish his holodeck fantasies. It's the equivalent of doodling a rather pornographic picture of a colleague, and ogling it on your own time. On its own, it's harmless, but potentially VERY embarrassing if it became public. Geordi, similarly, created holo-Brahms as a sounding board for his ideas on how to fix the ship in a crisis. Again, meant for professional and private use, I'd say it's sort of the equivalent of giving a desktop computer a pleasant theme off of a public figure you admire. When found out publicly, it became very embarrassing for Geordi.

Photons Be Free was published without authorial consent, and was intended for public and commercial use, as was Quark's Kira program. In both cases, a different standard needed to be applied. As for likeness, the Doctor did use them as starting points, but had already changed them enough to be different from the genuine article. When pointed out that they weren't different enough, he planned to change them to be different enough to not offend his friends.

And, Chakotay points out that they could win the case for 'defamation of character':

EMH: Because I'm a hologram.
TUVOK: Yes. There is another option. We may be able to claim that the holonovel reveals classified information. Starfleet could then request that it be recalled for security purposes.
PARIS: Oh, great idea. A cover up. And then everyone will be convinced that it's a true story.
CHAKOTAY: Could we claim defamation?
PARIS: Well, we'd have to prove that the story's about us and that we've been harmed by it.
JANEWAY: We might win on those grounds. But what about the Doctor?
EMH: What about me, Captain? It's the crew's reputations that are as risk.
JANEWAY: I'm not so sure. I think it's your reputation that's on the line here. You have the same rights as every other member of this crew, and I'm not going to let this publisher say otherwise.

Which means that that is something you can sue holodeck providers for, if they use your likeness and/or image.

[CharlesPhipps]

I appreciated the complicated role of arms dealing being handled here versus the somewhat stereotypical, "they're all a bunch of evil murderers who profit from misery and death." Yes, the episode leans that way but the simple fact is the Bajor situation shows that there have been many arms dealers who actually had political motivations for what they did.

It just wasn't these guys.

We've seen grayer interpretations of arms dealers as well like when that Vulcan Marquis lady showed up and wanted to work with Quark to acquire weapons for her associates. Profit was obviously a significantly less important motivation for her than their goals but the end result was the same.

So, obviously, Quark turning against them at the end was a good thing. They sell to dictators and mass murderers. However, I can understand why he thought he might have been working with people who wouldn't offend his small remaining areas of conscience.

[Yukaphile]

There's also the fact, as I said earlier, they were shown selling to legitimate freedom fighters sometimes. That makes it more complicated, because while they're selling to Hitlers and Stalins on various worlds, there's also George Washingtons they're selling to as well. Someone was right to say earlier one genocide is too far, but it's still noteworthy that some worlds are better thanks to them, even if it's for the wrong reasons.