On Wed, 7 Aug 1996 19:53:25 +0200 Eric Thomas said:
>>other tort category designed to protect people from public embarrasment
>>and possible resulting loss of income.
>
>As long as it is public knowledge that you kicked them off the list, they
>can sue for defamation of character.
>
   Along with the others, I'm not a lawyer.  But, t'would seem that filtering
someone is not the same (or not necessarily, in court, under oath) defamation
of character.  You could have kicked them off for many other reasons, such
as persistent mail bounces, etc, etc.  Now if you were a victim of bad
judgment (such as sending them an email saying you were kicking them off)
then you might have a problem.  But if I just filter somebody there is
nothing in the header that says why I did so.   And, since it is their
problem to prove that I did something defaming them, they'd better have
copies of email, etc, to prove it.
 
   That doesn't mean I want to face some jerk in court, but unless the
person is in the same community, or at least state, it is going to cost
them a small fortune to even START the action.  And, they'd have to be
pretty convinced that I've got deep enough pockets for there to be something
for them to collect, too.
 
   Note, I'm not saying this isn't a theoretical issue, but I'm sure not
going to lose sleep over it.  I'll worry a lot more about getting hit by
a log truck on the way home tonite.
 
   I'll also say that I remove my filters after about six months rather than
leave them to accumulate eternally.  None of them have ever come back to
haunt me after that.
 
cyclops
 
  Dan Lester, Network Information Coordinator
  Albertsons Library, Boise State University, Boise, Idaho 83725 USA
  [log in to unmask]             http://cyclops.idbsu.edu/
  How can one fool make another wise?  Kansas, "No One Together," 1979