At 9:27 PM -0600 11/6/96, Jim Choate wrote:
Hi all,
There is one important legal aspect which the operator of the Cypherpunks mailing list has opened themselves up for with this action. In short they have now opened themselves up for defamation and liable suites by imposing an editorial policy on the contents of this list (1).
Disagree.
This opens up the potential, for example, for Tim May to sue the operator of the Cypherpunks mailing list now for posts from users (even anonymous ones) which defame or otherwise liable his character, reputation, or ability to pursue income in his chosen field. In short the operators of the list becomes publishers and distributors of the material. It is the legal difference between a bookstore and a book publisher.
There is a very distinct difference between ejecting disruptive influences and conducting one's self as a publisher and distributer. Though these are issues which will end up before a jury (should it ever get that far) the fact that the list owner might have booted off a disruptive entity after repeated warnings is hardly going to meet the threshold to throw Mr. Gilmore into the catagory of "publisher."
Pseudo-law on this list is really getting out of hand.
We need more lawyers. That should replace the pseudo-law with real law. -- Forward complaints to : European Association of Envelope Manufactures Finger for Public Key Gutenbergstrasse 21;Postfach;CH-3001;Bern Vote Monarchist Switzerland