There would seem to be a bit of dependence here on whether the listowner
personally approved the item, or it was self-approved. If the former,
might be a tad of listowner liability, if the later I would say there
is likely little listowner liability for that.
As to modifying the list archives on demand because someone does
not like something contained therein, well, if the listowner, for years,
has steadfastly refused to tamper with the archives, except to get rid
of gross technical bloopers which interfere with retrieval, there is
no reason he should heed this demand for archive tampering. For one list
I have nine full years of archives and there is stuff of my own which I
wish were not there, but I am not about to take the material embarassing
to me out and I will not do it for anyone else and that is what I always
tell people who ask me to tamper with it for any reason other than fixing
a technical problem. Period.
Peter Graham's question is very interesting to me in that today I got
an item for approval for one list which I am still sitting on (among all
the other disasters of today (less said 'bout that the better)). I'm
sitting on it as the person is clearly looking for support for a job
classification/wage suit. That is a fight I do not want to to get into,
has nothing to do with what the list is for, only connection being he
works for a library. He is not a subscriber and his attempted posting
had to be relayed as he sent it to an old address we have not used for,
oh, at least six years.
Way I look at is, if I approve this item, I make myself, my coowner for
the list, the list, the list's host site and anyone who replies to the
posting potentialy liable to a supoena from one side or the other in this
suit, perhaps there may be criminal liability if it turns nasty, I don't
know. Then again, maybe this guy will sue me if I don't approve his
posting (he got the notice saying it had been routed to me for approval).
So, I'm still sitting on it while pondering.
Any gems of wisdom out there on this? Douglas
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