Taco Rubio Suspended, Upskirt Museum Taken Down

by Alphaville Herald on 25/12/04 at 9:54 pm

A few days ago we reported on Taco Rubio’s Upskirt Museum, in which he showed a slide show of screen shots taken up the skirts of female presenting avatars. Since then Taco has been suspended and the museum has been removed. The original suspension was for three days but has been reduced to one. We talked to Taco to get the inside scoop. Interview follows.

upskirt

Urizenus Sklar: So Taco, rumor has it you were suspended by the Lindens because of your upskirt museum.
Taco Rubio: well, technically i was suspended due to a ton of abuse reports for an object I had (the museum), so yes….though I appealed the suspension and got it dropped.
Urizenus Sklar: How long was the original suspension supposed to be?
Taco Rubio: It was for 3 days. I filed two appeals (got more info later for the second appeal), I ended up suspended for about 20 hours.
Urizenus Sklar: 3 or 30?
Taco Rubio: three day suspension. it was silly.
Urizenus Sklar: How many abuse reports were filed?
Taco Rubio: SL makes it a policy not to tell you who filed abuse reports, so I don’t officially know how many. Many.
Urizenus Sklar: more than 10?
Taco Rubio: umm they told me they were filed as ‘sexual harrassment’, ‘copyright infringement’, and other charges.
Taco Rubio: I don’t officially know that it was more than 20.
Urizenus Sklar: Were any of the people filing subjects of your candid screenshots?
Taco Rubio: again, I don’t have details about those who filed against me, per SL’s policy. I can tell you that they based the suspension on the abuse reports from the first day….
Taco Rubio: ….and nobody who was actually in the museum complained until the 5th day it was up.
Urizenus Sklar: how do you know that?
Taco Rubio: I got my first requests to remove pictures on the fifth day, from two individuals in the museum. The suspension was related to “events from XX/YY/ZZZZ” which was the first day.
Taco Rubio: could I add something, something I feel’s important and positive out of all this?
Urizenus Sklar: Gotcha. Maybe someone filed a complaint and didn’t tell you
Taco Rubio: that could very well be.
Urizenus Sklar: shoot, go ahead!
Taco Rubio: great thanks. Umm well i was suspended for sexual harrassment, and the whole time, arguing in the forums, _nobody_ knew SL’s stance on the whole thing.
Taco Rubio: so when i got suspended I put in my appeal something to the effect of “why didn’t you just ask me to take it down, instead of suspending me and leaving it up??”
Urizenus Sklar: Good point.
Taco Rubio: that was odd to me, that they suspended me for an object, and then left the object up.
Urizenus Sklar: What did they say to that?
Taco Rubio: I ended up going on with a friends account and asking a friendly linden to take it down; I was worried that while i served my 3 days, more abuse reports would be filed and i’d end up banned for ‘not learning his lesson’, you know?
Taco Rubio: ahh good question and the cool part. They agreed, and said that’s how they’ll try to handle this situation in the future.
Urizenus Sklar: Hmmm, could easily happen.
Urizenus Sklar: What was the rationale for calling this sexual harassment?
Taco Rubio: That’s a bit of a sore point. They gave me a clipping of the Community Standards, and it was true, I violated one point of it.
Taco Rubio: the problem, is the one point I violated is NOT in the community standards that we read on the website.
Urizenus Sklar: Do you have the passage handy?
Taco Rubio: Ok got it. One thing i had a problem with in the charge was this:
Taco Rubio: Violation: Community Standards: Sexual Harassment While some areas of Second Life are rated Mature, sexual or adult activities require the consent of all Residents involved.
Taco Rubio: if you can find that listed in teh Community Standards, please let me know.
Urizenus Sklar: it wasn’t on the website?
Taco Rubio: nope
Urizenus Sklar: IC, so this wasn’t a privacy issue so much as a sexual harassment issue
Taco Rubio: i argued that, and that consent is implied (in that we’re in a world where everyone has a camera and there aren’t any ‘hot’ days requiring short skirts, and a slew of other stuff.
Taco Rubio: I think it was actually a “hell these are a lot of abuse reports’ issue, Uri.
Urizenus Sklar: What was their response to that argument
Taco Rubio: I don’t have any idea, I got an email the next day asking me to try to remember people take this a bit more seriously than I do, and suspension lifted.
Urizenus Sklar: Hmmm, ok. Anything more to add?
Taco Rubio: I thanked them, and asked in the future they maybe tell somebody if an object breaks the rules rather then suspending them, and they agreed.
Taco Rubio: Only that you’re a peach, Urizenus.
Urizenus Sklar: Haha, that I am!
Taco Rubio: Great newspaper!