On Wed, 8 Jan 1997, Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law wrote:
Date: Wed, 8 Jan 1997 10:52:09 -0500 (EST) From: "Michael Froomkin - U.Miami School of Law" <froomkin@law.miami.edu> To: Greg Broiles <gbroiles@netbox.com> Cc: Pierre Uszynski <pierre@rahul.net>, cypherpunks@toad.com Subject: Re: Sandy and I will run a cypherpunks "moderation" experiment in Jan
I'm not sure I see why a moderator would have any liability for passing on a trade secret or even a classified military secret so long as the moderator did not have a contractual relationship (or a clearance, as the case may be) with the owner. That's free speech. The moderator might have to cooperate with a subpoena from the original owner seeking to find who stole/released the secret, but that's a different problem. Is there some trade secret theory of an implicit trusteeship that i don't know about?
Not to my knowledge. But See, subpoena comment above. I am amazed that no one has suggested a pool of moderators with provisions to blind a given post from attributation to a specific moderator. (Attornies- what might be impact of a Res Ipsa attack on this kind of set up, and incidently, on other anonymous pool arrangements?)
As to the choice of the moderator, innocent until proven guilty, I say. I personally don't put much store in requiring a moderator to issue a code of practice. Common law and equity will do to evolve a system as it goes along.
While as far as conduct goes I agree, in defining what will eventually be the list content, and thus what I should or should not use/waste my time typing up, it is an important ex ante condition that a stated policy exist. There are two questions here. 1> Will my material be booted off only because it disturbs the moderator? (I think this is the one answered by your common law reference) 2> Will my material violate some restriction and be booted "for cause?" (This can only be predicted accurately if there is a stated policy on what constitutes a violation- and then only where the policy has teeth or is generally respected). -- Forward complaints to : European Association of Envelope Manufactures Finger for Public Key Gutenbergstrasse 21;Postfach;CH-3001;Bern Vote Monarchist Switzerland