The following excerpt is part of the legal agreement that users must accept to sign up for Sony Entertainment Network, a forum and hosting service for online gaming through PlayStation consoles. It seems to me that many of these rules prohibit behaviors and practices that SEN has encountered, and had to deal with, over the course of their history hosting online games. From this perspective, the code does not reflect well on the past conduct of online gamers.
3. COMMUNITY CODE OF CONDUCT
You must adhere to the following rules of conduct, and also follow a reasonable, common-sense code of conduct. Users are required to take into consideration community standards and refrain from abusive or deceptive conduct, cheating, hacking, or other misuse of SEN. Rights of other users should be respected.
The actions that are prohibited include the following:
You may not manipulate or inflate usage of SEN.
You may not engage in deceptive or misleading practices.
You may not abuse or harass others, including stalking behavior.
You may not take any action, or upload, post, stream, or otherwise transmit any content, language, images or sounds in any forum, communication, public profile, or other publicly viewable areas or in the creation of any Online ID that SNEI or its affiliates, in their sole discretion, find offensive, hateful, or vulgar. This includes any content or communication that SNEI or its affiliates deem racially, ethnically, religiously or sexually offensive, libelous, defaming, threatening, bullying or stalking.
You may not organize hate groups.
You may not upload, post, stream, or otherwise transmit any content that contains any viruses, worms, spyware, time bombs, or other computer programs that may damage, interfere with, or disrupt SEN.
You may not use, make, or distribute unauthorized software or hardware, including Non-Licensed Peripherals and cheat code software or devices that circumvent any security features or limitations included on any software or devices, in conjunction with SEN, or take or use any data from SEN to design, develop or update such unauthorized software or hardware.
You may not modify or attempt to modify the online client, disc, save file, server, client-server communication, or other parts of any game title, or content.
You may not cause disruption to or modify or damage any account, system, hardware, software, or network connected to or provided by SEN for any reason, including for the purpose of gaining an unfair advantage in a game.
You may not attempt to hack or reverse engineer any code or equipment in connection with SEN.
You may not take any action that SNEI or its affiliates consider to be disruptive to the normal flow of chat or gameplay, including uploading, posting, streaming, or otherwise transmitting any unsolicited or unauthorized material, including junk mail, spam, excessive mail or chain letters.
You may not introduce content that is commercial in nature such as advertisements, solicitations, promotions and links to web sites.
You may not introduce content that could be harmful to SNEI or its affiliates or their licensors, or players, such as any code or virus that may damage, alter or change any property or interfere with the use of property or SEN.
You may not upload, post, stream, access, or otherwise transmit any content that you know or should have known to be infringing, or that violates, any third party rights, any law or regulation, or contractual or fiduciary obligations.
You may not impersonate any person, including an SNEI or third party employee.
You may not provide SNEI or any third party company with false or inaccurate information, including reporting false complaints to our or our affiliates’ consumer services or providing false or inaccurate information during account registration.
You may not sell, buy, trade, or otherwise transfer your Online ID, SEN Account or any personal access to SEN through any means or method, including by use of web sites.
You may not conduct any activities that violate any local, state or federal laws, including copyright or trademark infringement, defamation, invasion of privacy, identity theft, hacking, stalking, fraud, stealing or using without purchasing, where payment is required, any content or service and distributing counterfeit software or SEN Accounts.
And always remember: have fun!*
*I added this.
