Holographic Rights

The Holographic Rights Movement drew inspiration from the first hologram that was able to truly exercise its sentience: the EMH of the USS Voyager. The original doctor the EMH was based on, Marcus Wolfe CP/Marcus Wolfe, spearheaded a campaign to grant holograms equal rights which continued with his holographic form.
Because of the work Marcus did within the government, all holograms who are sentient and are used in homes with the mobile-emitter must be given unions, wages and the same benefits that corporeal workers do. They are allowed to marry and have equal rights under the law. Many groups still argue that any use of the holodecks is considered an abuse, however the matter has largely been dropped since Marcus was deemed to be mentally unstable.
The Doctor's Struggle:
His development was slow but he was gradually accepted as part of the crew as well as a friend. Initially, the Doctor was unable to turn his program on and off at will, but was eventually granted this ability. He was even enabled more freedom through use of his mobile emitter, a piece of 29th century technology, which could store and project a hologram in areas that did not have holoemitters installed. In 2376, he made his first holonovel, called Photons Be Free, where he depicted the mistreatment of an EMH by a darker Voyager. The Doctor eventually realized, after several arguments with the Voyager crew, that the many similarities between the real Voyager and his fictional recreation would taint the reputation of his crew mates. He attempted to make revisions to his novel before it was published, hoping to remove the more blatant similarities. However, his publisher had already released the novel and refused to remove it from publication, stating that as holograms weren't believed to be sentient, they had no legal rights. He fought for the creative control of his novel, backed by the Voyager crew. The courts ruled that, while they couldn't yet judge if The Doctor should be defined as a sentient lifeform, they were willing to extend the definition of an artist to include holograms such as The Doctor. This struck the first blow in attaining more rights for sentient holograms, but the damage had been done in The Doctor's eyes. The novel had been transmitted and it had been widely disseminated without the revisions, tainting Voyager's reputation. However the crew forgave him for this. Photons Be Free later became an inspirational work amongst the obsolete EMHs doomed to work in mines, its message potentially spearheading a new revolution for the EMHs.
Category:Legalities
Category:Non-Character Information