Interesting People mailing list archives
IP: thin edge of the wedge
From: Dave Farber <farber () cis upenn edu>
Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 06:23:56 -0500
"When you come to the fork in the road, take it" - L.P. Berra John F. McMullen johnmac () acm org http://www.westnet.com/~observer ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Sun, 22 Mar 1998 15:02:22 +0900 From: eldon <eldon () GOL COM> Reply-To: Philosophy and Psychology of Cyberspace <CYBERMIND () LISTSERV AOL COM> To: CYBERMIND () LISTSERV AOL COM Subject: thin edge of the wedge while in oz i caught sight of the following article in the sydney morning herald (it's dated saturday, march 14; didn't have time to copy it then - typing speeds slow as they are, staying with family and friends, most lists set to nomail for the duration, online friends knowing that they may be privileged to receive random virtual postcards....) but reading this sent a slight chill up the corporeal spine - ------ "Internet provider pays $10,000 over libel" by David Passey "In what is thought to be the first case of its kind, an Australian Internet provider has been sued for defamation after allegations that a London academic was psychiatrically ill were repeatedly published on its service. "Six allegations of illness, authored by an Australian user and published through the Internet service provider Melbourne PC Users Group, were circulated despite the subject's plea to stop the publications. "Although the Melbourne PC Users Group settled out of court on March 3 for more than $10,000, it has done so without admitting liability. The case against the author is before the Supreme Court in London. "For the first time, the case has brought into sharp focus the potential for an Internet service provider to be liable globally for defammatory material published through its services. "A leading technology lawyer, Mr Philip Argy, of Mallesons Stephen Jaques, said he believed this case demonstrated that service providers were potentially liable across international borders. "His reading of the law was that liability could be established if the material was proven to be defammatory; if the service provider knew the material was being published; and if no action was taken to stop it. "According to the complainant, London physicist Dr Laurence Godfrey, the allegations were published on a service known as News Groups, a public forum not unlike talk-back radio in which people openly correspond. An estimated 2,000 people in Britain had access to these allegations, which Dr Godfrey said threatened to severely harm his reputation. Around the world, an estimated 30,000 people could have tapped into the claims. "'I specifically requested that the provider put a stop to these allegations,' Dr godfrey said. 'They specifically wrote back to say they wouldn't. It happened six times and that's why I sued for defamation. "'I'm a lecturer and there is a very wide readership of these newsgroups by people in academic institutions - students, research staff and my colleagues - and so these allegations were especially damaging.' "Mr Willian Ford, speaking for the service provider, which has 11,500 members in Australia, said its initial reaction was that it was not their responsibility to censor material on the service. "This, however, contradicts a warning published in its August 1996 journal, PC Update, which said: 'The committee must act immediately when it sees a potential for defamation proceedings. So any member who treads into that territory is virtually guaranteed to lose...access to all our electronic services...' "Mr Ford said: 'In the first instance we didn't believe the material was defammatory. We therefore contacted Mr Godfrey to tell him we were not obliged to act. But later we told the member to desist. We told him to stop and he did.'" ------
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- IP: thin edge of the wedge Dave Farber (Mar 22)