On Sat, 3 Apr 2004, Linda Newell wrote:
> We have a situation on my list that has just come up since this thread
> started:
> I received an email from a former list member. This particularl individual
> lives in Australia as well.  (We are an international list with the listserv
> sponsor we use located in the US.)
> She wanted all posts of her deleted from our archives as it may cause her
> problems in her family court.
   !!!!!!!!!!!!!

When it comes to list material which may have bearing on a legal case in
court, civil or criminal, all bets are off.

You say the person is in Australia "as well."  From that I take it that you
are in Australia, even though your address has .uk rather than .au. You,
then, should have a better idea of what this "family court" business is.
What is it, a sort of low level civil court?  Are other members of her
family suing her for revealing what they consider totally private family
details, causing them actionable pain/hardship/embarrassment/suffering/
whatever?

You really need to find out what the "family court" is, and what this
case is about.

I sounds like she wants her material deleted from the archives as it might
be used as evidence against her.  In other words, she wants you to conceal/
destroy evidence.

Not knowing anything about Australian "family court" I don't know if you
could be sued civilly for doing that, or possibly be prosecuted for a
criminal act.  If she freely posted to a public list, with public archives,
I doubt that she could hold you liable for anything, though one never knows
how courts will rule.  On the other hand, if you delete all her postings,
at her request, because they might be used against her in court, well...

I would advise, delete nothing and seek professional legal counsel, NOW.
And preserve all e-mail (and other) from her on the matter, all e-mail
(and other) you have sent to her, or anyone else, and all replies.

Further below.

> We have perused the emails and frankly don't see anything that would be
> overtly damaging, but that is not our legal call to make of course.
> However, when I approached our listserv sponsors about the mechanics
> involved, we were informed it could be done by hand on a post by post
> basis (2 years worth of posts, mind you.)  They were quite nice and
> offered to do this, but I hate to ask anyone to do this.
>
> We were also informed that our list could be marked as private. It has
> been a publically accessed list since its inception.
>
> While I would like to help this lady, I don't feel morally compelled to
> change the basic philosophy and structure of our list. Plus the
> individual deletions would leave holes in the threads that would make
> following things quite difficult at times.

You could do the editing yourself, if you are so inclined.  Just get the
logs where her postings appear, edit the stuff out, and put it back.  You
don't want to totally delete the items as that will really mess things
up.  Delete the text, leaving a note that the text has been deleted on
request, change the Subject: line, and change the From:, etc., to your
address, or the list.  If she posted regularly for two years you are
looking at some l*o*n*g editing sessions.  I wouldn't do it, except under
court order, or they clearly violate someone else's copyright (someone
send to the list full text of a commercial e-journal, for example).

I wouldn't do it.  She posted freely to a public list, presumably within
the list guidelines.  It isn't your fault that she now finds her postings
a liability.  More than once I have been asked to delete someone's posting
on this or that, the person wishes he hadn't said whatever.  I have always
refused; I don't delete the things I wish *I* hadn't posted.

Also, even if you delete her items from the archives there may still be
many copies out there.  In the same vein, changing the archives to
"private" won't help, as all one needs do to search the archives is
subscribe to the list.

What you could do, while considering, or seeking counsel, is to set the
archives to "owner" so that only you (and other listowners), and your site
administrator(s) have access the list archives.

I advise that you find out what this "family court" is, what the case
involves, and seek professional legal counsel (and save all everything
about the case).  Failing that, it would, I think, be safer for you to
refuse to delete, without a court order to do so.

I am not an attorney and the above does not constitute legal advice,
particularly in Australia.

Douglas Winship     [log in to unmask]