Code of Conduct at events

[Ian Jackson]

Wichert Akkerman writes ("Re: Code of Conduct at events"):
> On 11/10/10 16:11 , John Goerzen wrote:
> > The law various from country to country, as does the effectiveness of
> > its enforcement. Do we find it acceptable to permit this sort of
> > behavior when conferences are held in countries that don't effectively
> > prohibit it?
> 
> Yes. Do you want to pretend to enforce (part of) US law in other 
> countries? That would be odd.

No, we want to enforce our communities' own moral standards at our own
events.  

This is something that every community should expect to do and I'm
frankly astonished to see people seriously suggesting that any
behaviour which would go unpunished by the civil authorities should
necessarily be tolerated at our events.

Indeed if I remember rightly, a few years ago a person was expelled
from Debconf (and from Debian) as a result of their behaviour at
Debconf.  I wasn't there myself so I can't second-guess the decision
of the conference organisers, but I fully support their authority to
ask an attendee to leave based on what the organisers obviously felt
was unacceptable behaviour.

I don't know if people attending Debconf are frequently subjected to
unwanted touching, sexual harassment, racism, or whatever.  I hope not
but as a fit and healthy white man I'm not likely to have experienced
it directly, and for the reasons we have seen public reports are rare.

Reports of people having serious difficulty at other events and
matters not being handled properly by conference organisers show that
at the very least the larger free softwae community has some work to
do.

Ian.