bcn@mit-eddie.UUCP (Clifford Neuman) (02/06/85)
Here's an idea for avoiding the potential for libel. How about making sure that everything that is sent out over stargate is true. Sound difficult? Not really. All you have to do is this. Instead of broadcasing the message received, broadcast a message which says "A message was received which apparently was sent by so and so. The contents of this message were as follow...". When a message is received by a ground station, the local software can do as it pleases with the message. For instance, it could remove the "header" I just described. Of course removing the header would make them liable for any damage that resulted from doing so, but the damage would be limited to the people who saw it on the machine in question. I am not an attorney, so I really don't know if this would work, but I always thought that truth was an absolute defense for libel. Thus, by only transmitting the truth, we should be able to protect ourselves. Clifford Neuman bcn@mit-eddie.UUCP bcn@mit-eddie.ARPA
lauren@vortex.UUCP (Lauren Weinstein) (02/07/85)
The idea of putting a "disclaimer heading" on messages to try avoid
libel ("The following was sent by so-and-so") would be laughed
out of court. It would be considered to be an extremely transparent
attempt to avoid responsibility for material through linguistic
tricks, and would almost certainly be ruled totally invalid.
Remember that the damage done by libel is done by the untrue
elements of the message, not the fact that there m3a "true"
disclaimer tacked on the front!
By and large, the courts aren't that easily deceived in such cases.
--Lauren--