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Comment on The Verge Under Fire For Publishing Info About ‘Deadlock,’ Valve’s Secret Shooter
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks agoValve fucked up but the Verge still broke the social contract regardless of whether they’re legally in the clear or not.
Doing something just because “it’s legal” doesn’t make it a moral justification. My wife and I have a joint bank account. It is legal for me to take money from it and gamble it all away, the gate is “open” but that doesn’t make it morally justifiable.
ccunning@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
phdepressed@sh.itjust.works 5 weeks ago
The social contract exists always. It isn’t a paper contract but a societal consensus about what constitutes acceptable behavior. Gambling joint money without agreement is not socially acceptable behavior. Bypassing a eula/nda for a beta version of a thing and then spreading the info just because you’re legally in the clear is not societally acceptable behavior. It doesn’t matter that it shouldn’t have been so easy to do so or that they won’t face legal consequences.
ccunning@lemmy.world 5 weeks ago
The “social contract” exists with the understanding that journalists are going to report news unrestricted unless there has been a prior agreement. Journalists entire profession reputation and careers are based on respecting their sources.
That’s the whole reason embargo’s exist.
moody@lemmings.world 5 weeks ago
Meh, I don’t think there’s anything morally wrong with what he did. What he did wasn’t just legal, it’s literally his job. The only issue is that Valve is now angry at him for their own failing.
To continue the same analogy, they didn’t just leave the gate open, they literally invited a bunch of people and told them to invite other people. I’m not sure what they expected if not this exact situation.
dormedas@lemmy.dormedas.com 5 weeks ago
Valve isn’t really angry as far as I can tell, or have heard. They’re about as angry as any other person which goes and posts this stuff online: revoking access. If Valve wanted to expand their testing userbase without people leaking it online, they would have sought NDAs and other legally-binding agreements with testers and - by extension - journalists who can test the game.