WE THE USERS, to form a more perfect network, establish Justice, promote open standards, and secure liberty to our users, establish this constitution for IRCNow.

## Article I

# All network policies will be created by Congress, which is made up of a Senate and a House of Representatives.

# Each year, each server will choose representatives for the house. He must have been an active, verified user for at least 3 years. When elected and during his office, he must be using the server he represents.\\

Representatives and user fees for each server will be in proportion to the number of verified, active users on the official network, excluding users on non-free protocols, plus three-fifth all other users.\\

New representatives can be elected to fill vacancies.\\

The house shall choose their Speaker and other officers and have the sole power of impeachment.

# Each server will choose one senator. Each senator gets one vote. Each senator serves for three years.\\

Each year, one-third of the senators will be elected. New senators can be elected to fill vacancies.\\

He must have been an active, verified user on the network for a minimum of 6 years. When elected and during his office, he must be using the server he represents.\\

The Vice President is president of the senate but has no votes except to break ties.\\

The Senate chooses their other Officers and a President pro tempore, who in the Absence of the Vice President, becomes President.\\

The Senate has the sole power to try impeachments. When the President is tried, the Chief Justice shall preside. No user shall be convicted without a two-thirds majority of those present.\\

Impeachment only removes and disqualifies from office. A convicted user, however, can still be subject to trial and punishment according to network policy.

# Each server manages its own elections, but Congress may regulate these elections.\\

Congress must meet at least once every six months.

# Each house judges its own elections and the qualifications of its members. A quorum is a simple majority. A smaller number may meet and compel attendance by penalizing absent members.\\

Each house determines its own proceedings and how to punish disorderly behavior. A two-thirds majority vote is needed to expel a member.\\

Each house shall publish an archive of its proceedings excluding parts that may require secrecy. Upon the request of one-fifth of the members, each members' vote can be recorded in the archive.

# Senators and representatives shall be compensated by the Network Treasury. Except for committing a real-world crime or network treason, they cannot be banned when Congress meets.\\

No user may simultaneously hold another paid network office while also being paid as a senator or representative.

# All proposals for raising money must begin in the House. The Senate may propose other policies.\\

All proposals must pass both House and Senate to become official network policy. The president has 10 days to veto it, but this can be overturned if there is a two-thirds majority in both houses. All votes must then be recorded in the archive.

# Congress has the power to:

  # Charge user fees

  # Charge fees for transaction that involve an external organization. All such fees must be uniform throughout the network

  # Borrow money and pay debts

  # Provide for the common network defense and welfare

  # Regulate transactions among servers and with external networks and groups

  # Establish a uniform policy for netizenship and bankruptcies

  # Issue and regulate cryptocurrencies

  # Punish cryptocoin fraud

  # To establish network mail and chat services

  # To promote creative works by securing authors exclusive rights for limited times

  # To create courts inferior to the supreme Court;

  # To punish software pirates, spammers, and ddosers

  # To make deals with other networks, to boycott or to compete with them; and to offer bounties

  # To recruit and pay for code forces, but any collection of money must be used within one year.

  # To provide for organizing, disciplining, and equipping minutemin. The servers have the right to appoint and train minutemin according to policies determined by Congress

  # To provide for and regulate outreach to users on foreign networks

  # To call the minutemin to suppress user revolts and repel invasions

  # To exclusively decide all policy for all cases for the server chosen as network headquarters,

  # To make any policy needed to execute the above

# No user can be banned without a fair trial except during user revolts or external invasion if the network's safety requires it.\\

The Congress is not allowed to ban users, and no one shall be punished for breaking a proposed policy before the policy is official.\\

Congress cannot charge user fees unless in direct proportion to user counts.\\

Congress cannot charge transaction fees for services that do not involve multiple servers or an external network.\\

No commercial policy can prefer one server over another.\\

No money can be taken from the Treasury except through policy by Congress; and a financial report shall be published periodically.\\

No special social status shall be granted to any user; and no salaried officer is allowed to receive payments from competing networks without the approval of Congress.

# No server may may make a deal with another external network or organization; issue cryptocoins; borrow money; or grant any special social status.\\

No server can, without Congress' approval, charge any transaction fees for trade between servers on the network except what is absolutely necessary to recover costs.

## Article II

# A president and vice president will be elected once every 2 years.\\

Each server will choose electors equal to its number of senators and representatives. These electors must not hold any other office.\\

The electors will vote for two users and shall sign and certify their vote. The President of the Senate will count all the votes in the Congress. The user with the greatest number of votes shall be President if voted for by a majority of electors. If there is a tie, then the House shall vote and choose the President. If no user has the vote of a majority of electors, then from the five candidates with the most votes, the House will choose the President. In choosing the President, each server has one vote. A quorum is two-thirds of the servers. In every case, the user with the greatest number of votes after the President shall be the Vice President. If there are any remaining ties, the Senate will choose by ballot.\\

The president must have been an active, registered user for at least 10 years.\\

If the President is unable to fulfill his duties, the Vice President will become President.\\

The President will receive a salary which cannot be increased or decreased during his term. He cannot receive any other income from the network.\\

He must agree to faithfully execute the Office of President and to preserve, protect and defend the Constitution.

# The President will be the chief of the Code Force, minutemin, and external outreach when called into service. He will have power to grant network pardons, except in cases of impeachment.\\

He has the power to make deals with external networks and organizations provided 2/3rds of the senate agree. He can nominate ambassadors, judges of the supreme Court, and other officers with the approval of the Senate.\\

The president must report any gifts or income received from competing businesses. After the network begins paying salaries, the president cannot receive any gifts or income from competing businesses.

# He shall periodically inform Congress about the State of the Network. He shall execute the policies and appoint the officers of the network.

# The President, Vice President and all officers of the network can be removed if impeached and convicted of network treason, bribery, or other serious abuses.

## Article III

# There will be one supreme Court. Congress may appoint inferior courts. Judges will serve, under the condition of honorable behavior, for 10 years. Their salary cannot decrease during their time in office.

# The judges will decide cases involving disputes between servers, disputes involving an external organization, disputes between users of different servers, disputes between a user on one server and another server, and any dispute where the network is involved.

# Except for impeachment, all trials will be by Jury. It will be held in the server where the abuse was committed. If not committed on any server, the Trial will take place according to Congress' policy.

## Article IV

# Netizens of any server will have the same rights as netizens of other servers on the network.

# A user accused of abuse who flees to another server must be handed back to the server the abuse was committed on to be judged.

# New servers may be admitted by the congress into the network, but not as a result of a split without the server's permission.\\

Congress can create any necessary policies for new hardware that have not yet joined the network as official servers.

# Each server is guaranteed a republican form of government, and the network shall protect each of them against external attacks.

## Article V

# Amendments to this constitution can be made if 3/4ths of all servers agree.

## Article VI

# This constitution, all policies and deals made under it, shall be the official policy of the network. Judges in every server must agree to follow it.

# All network officers must agree to support this constitution, but no religious test will ever be required for any office.

## Article VII

# This constitution will be in effect if 9 out of 13 servers approve it.

## [[#billofrights]]User Bill of Rights

# Congress shall not make any policy to establish an official religion or to stop the free exercise of religion; or to stop the freedom of speech or the freedom of the press; or the right of the users to peaceably gather to petition the staff.

# Free and open source software is necessary to the liberty of a free network, so the right of the users to the network's software shall not be restricted. Users have the right to use, modify, copy, and distribute any and all of the software used on the network, for any purpose and at any price without needing to ask for permission.

# No staff will be allowed, in time of peace, to log private data without the consent of the user. During an abuse investigation, such logging must be approved by policy.

# Users have a right to be secure from unreasonable searches of their personal information and data. Permission to search can be given only upon probable cause and where the data to be searched and seized are described.

# No user can be banned without a fair trial except during times of great danger; no user can be punished for the same reason twice; nor will a user be required to be a witness against himself; nor can a user be deprived of any money without a fair trial.

# Users accused of abuse shall get a fast trial by a fair jury. They have a right to be informed of accusations; to be confronted with witnesses against him; and to be able to defend himself.

# The right of trial by jury shall be preserved for financial disputes.

# Punishment must fit the abuse and must not be excessive or cruel.

# The rights listed in the Constitution must not be used to deny rights reserved to the users.

# Any other powers not mentioned here which are not forbidden are reserved to the servers and users.