] 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.