I am helping advise a list management (somewhat collegial) on issues surrounding a threatened libel lawsuit by one correspondent against another, and collaterally against the listowner himself. The threat against the former is none of our business. The threat against the list is phrased as such *unless* the listowner removes the offending message from the archives. Listowner is not at the hosting institution of higher ed. I've searched the lstown-l list under terms liability, legal, libel and found a little bit; mostly a colloquy last year in which the issue was left uncertain. The advice of consulting legal counsel of the institution is of course relevant and will be part of our process. However we assume he/she is not absolutely au fait with internet libel law and would like to be helpful. There are two issues, of course. Removal of messages I think is a very bad idea, as it gets us into responsibility for vetting the file and thus more liable rather than less (not to mention censorship/free speech issues). I'm more interested in exploring here the legal liability issues of the listowner and the list publisher (they are not the same). Is there any further information since last year? In any case, specific citations of cases would be helpful. I will summarize private replies, though I think general response would be most helpful. Thanks to all. --pg -- Peter Graham Syracuse University Library [log in to unmask] Syracuse NY 13244-2010 315/443-5530 fax 315/443-2060 8/00nw4.6r