FD's not using your book to make their rules; and the quote you took from their book doesn't back up your point at all. That says "hey, don't go around breaking Wheaton's Law in regards to your fellow gamers on any comms channel we may provide". You can't talk smack about the human on the other side of the pixels based on who they are as a person. You can't threaten to come to their house and stab them. It's a standard rule for any game with human communication channels.
Player avatars however, are not the same thing. Unless you're repeatedly following and killing someone alldayerryday (and glwt with Elite's instancing and server arrangement and timezones and modes even if they were dumb enough to friend their enemies), you're allowed to shoot anyone's spaceship that you can see. It has zero to do with the target's loadout or experience or feelies or that they had 5 months of explo data or that your ship is vastly outgunning them or anything else.
Attacking other players is a basic gameplay mechanic. If you don't like that mechanic or certain expressions of that mechanic, FD has also provided alternate game modes where it is literally impossible for just such a reason.
Your reply, is bizarre.
"My book" how do you even know what book FD is using other then imposing your own idea's on what that might be?
Anything you do online, is a form of communication, your avatar's your actions, anything.
If you feel it is not, do explain how it is not?
Because repeatedly going around and killing people IS something that is happening, the only distinction away from that is that it is against a specific group of players, then one single player. Namely the new and the easy targets, which like going after any specific group of people most definitely can count towards harassment.
Yes the game allows you mechanically to do an action, that does not mean it cannot become harassment.
For example you are allowed to walk around and people watch all you like, heck you are even allowed to say most anything you want to people up to a point.
But even keeping within those lines, you have harassment and stalking, both of which are punished even though they are composed of actions that are on their own not something you will get in trouble for.
And exactly like that, when you specifically go after targets you find easy, be it explorers or people with low experience, the attacker is choosing these actions to go after a specific group. Yes, the actions on their own are just fine to do, but when put into context of what they actually archive, which is hurting the Elite playerbase for no other reason then personal gain, then yeah it can most definitely qualify as harassment, and that has nothing to do with 'my book' or anything like that, that is an objective view on the comparison of the action.
And using the "but they can go other modes" changes absolutely nothing, that would mean, the attacker is forcing the other players to do something to avoid a repeated negative action, again put in other contexts in real life and it would qualify as harassment.
"You can't go to this train station because these thugs will mug you, but you are free to go to any other train station"
Yes, most people would go to the other train station, but that does not mean the thugs aren't harassing or doing worse to people.
And the whole "This is just a game"
So you have a garden, and someone decides to vandalise it ruining the time and effort you have put into it.
"but it is just a garden, you can plant it again, and maybe put fencing around this time, yeah I might just bring something to bypass that fence, but that's your fault for not making a wall, that i might bring a jackhammer to, but that's your fault for not making a ....(repeat with whatever is bigger and needed to defend from that e.t.c.)"
Again it doesn't change the actions of what is being done by the person ruining the garden.
These are the exact same repeated things said over and over in defence of people deliberately out to simply disrupt the game for others.