Memory Alpha:AOL chats/Ronald D. Moore/ron023.txt

Subj: Answers Date: 4/18/97 8:41:44 PM From:  RonDMoore

Okay, I'm cheating here. I usually don't jump to the end of the postings and answer those questions before the older ones, but....

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Yes, I do think there's nothing morally or ethically wrong with this scenario. A copy of me is still just a copy regardless of how perfect that copy may be. Someone's interaction with a Holo-me does not actually harm me in any way shape or form. So they're in there kissing Holo-me or kicking Holo-me in the teeth? How am I harmed if those actions are confined to the holodeck? Do I mind if they *think* they're having a relationship with me when all they're doing is making out with a Holo-me? Not if they leave the real me alone and stay in their holodeck. Am I harmed if they write fictional stories about kissing or kicking me? Only if those stories are published, in which case I have been threatened publicly or slandered and can then take action. But writing these things on your own, in the privacy of your home is something that should fall under the strictest protection of a free society, and provided you keep your Holodeck fantasies *on the Holodeck* they should be protected as well.

There's more of an issue in my mind regarding how this copy was obtained in the first place. If this copy of my image was being bought and sold without my consent then I'd have a problem with that -- but again, that's a different issue and would deal with things like copyright law or what constitutes a "public figure" in the 24th century.

What someone actually *does* with a legally obtained image is, in my view, completely up to them. I would think that the holodeck/suite is a complete freedom of expression zone and you should be allowed to kill your friends, have sex with nuns, marry your dog, or put a dress on Jesse Helms in there if that's your cup of tea. You can argue whether doing any of this is *healthy* behavior for the individual and what it says about you as a person, but I don't think a person has the right to control how someone else *uses* a lawfully obtained picture/image/simulation.