Thanks for the responses on this topic. The answer, besides the "get legal
advice" angle, appears to be that there is no precedent yet set for
listowners. (I have scared up the standard examples for ISP concerns
(Cuddy v. Compuserve 1991, Stratton Oakmont v. Prodigy 1995, Zeran v. AOL
1997, as well as the Good Samaritan Section of the CDA) which seem to
indicate that if you keep clearly in the passive conduit role, and are not
an editor, you are generally protected.)

Regards,
        Hugh

On Fri, 9 Apr 1999, Paul Russell wrote:

> The best answer was probably the advice to check with legal counsel.
> There have been numerous discussions of this question in this and other
> forums (you might want to check the list archives), and the answer
> usually seems to be "it depends". A short list of factors which might
> be considered would probably include the following:
> * the purpose of the list;
> * whether subscription is voluntary or mandatory (as with a list used
>   by an organization to communicate with its employees);
> * restrictions, or lack thereof, on subscriptions;
> * restrictions, or lack thereof, on postings;
> * the type of entity which provides the hosting service;
> * the nature of the relationship between the hosting entity and the
>   list owner and/or editor.
>
> On Thu, 8 Apr 1999 "Hugh W. Jarvis" <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
> Does anyone have a good handle on the current state of the law for US
> listowners's liability?
>