At 20.13 +0100 0-04-03, Geoff Hayward scrobe:
>Have colleagues heard about the court case here where a professor of physics
>has just sued one of the internet providers for libelous comments made about
>him in one of the chatrooms sponsored by demon.
Only vaguely, and I'm not even sure it was the same case.
So I'm wondering if you know if this prof was IN the chat where he was
slandered, or if he "overheard" people "talking" about him... and if so
HOW. I mean - libelous comments in a chatroom... I thought Net chat was
ephemeral but maybe I'm just not updated on how web chat environments
function...
Lot's of questions about the specific situation in order to know just how
to apply the law to it, right?
>What are the implications of
>this for communities like this one?
Oh... that the community lives dangerously at all times. It just takes ONE
participant (or nonparticipant, for that matter) in the position to invoke
the Law, AND with an inclination to do so.... vulnerable thingies these
environments as soon as trust is breached.
However, I wonder, who would be available for suing in the case of XMCA?
The UCSD???
Eva
This archive was generated by hypermail 2b29 : Tue May 23 2000 - 09:21:12 PDT