] From:    Brian Lingard <[log in to unmask]>
] The moderator will have to rreview everything sent to the list to
] approve it, and some people may consider this Fascist censorship but it
] certainly stops spam and flames in their tracks.
 
    If you forward anything  to  your  list  which  may be liable of
    criminal prosecution you may be hold responsible by a  court  of
    law  for spreading such information.  Moderation is, as far as I
    can see, not a good/practical alternative to list dynamics.
 
    There was the case of an  owner  from a bio-science list run via
    the MIT who was harassed by  a  Miami  based  Lawyer  firm:  She
    forwarded   some   politically  sensitive  information  on  some
    [fraudulent] documentary on the  killing  of some dolphins.  The
    case came to involve a government from South America which hired
    the Miami lawyers to attack the list  owner  and  other  paties.
    Very serious stuff.
 
] From:    Winship <[log in to unmask]>
] Anyone interested in setting up a "listowner's defense trust" for such
] situations?
 
    A  brilliant  idea.   I  believe there should be such a trust to
back up listowners+sysops+sites.   In  the  above  described case, I
would say I got the feeling the listowner [whom  I  exchanged  ideas
with]  may  have  been  ruined  (academically,  economically) by the
*jerks* who hired the lawyers.  Also, some *jerks* would do anything
to  harm   a   listowner/sysop/institution/   when   kicked   off  a
conference/site.  Most jerks claim "the constitutional right to free
speech" to  attack  other  people  -scientists  in  our  case.   For
instance,  some  jerk  who was kicked from FISH-ECOLOGY mentioned in
LISTMANAGERS@GREATCIRCLE that we  might  be  kicking off people from
the conference on  racial/ethnical  grounds:  When  I  get  to  know
something  like  that,  after  endless  hours  of  work with all the
honesty I may have, allocation of almost unlimited resources from my
country and over-time  from  my  sysop  to  build  up a high quality
on-line source *the heart takes over the mind* to say the least.
 
    Aldo-Pier/FISH-ECOLOGY.