Ooooops!

[John Nash]

In article <2l3mri$mhu at news.u.washington.edu>,
Kris Carroll <kcarroll at u.washington.edu> wrote:
>In article <2l294j$1kd at net.bio.net> kristoff at net.bio.net (David  
>Kristofferson) writes:
>> *** I CAUTION READERS*** that libel laws *do* apply to anything that
>> you decide to post, so those who feel that they can say anything with
>> impunity on the newsgroups are seriously deluding themselves.
>> 
>> 
>> 				Dave Kristofferson
>> 				BIOSCI/bionet Manager
>
>
>Politely, I disagree with this portion of your post. Libel law has not yet  
>been applied to the net as far as I know. And I can't see that such a test  
>would hold up considering the ability of many to forge posts, usurp  
>accounts, lack of ability to authenitcate posts etc. (Whose archive of  
>USENET groups do you trust?) Can you provide additional information or  
>proof?
>
>Kris Carroll

If you follow soc.culture.canada, you will see that a certain Lawrence
Godfrey has tried to sue both Phill Hallam-Baker and the DESY (an
Institute in Germany) following remarks that were posted on a number of
newsgroups.  It appears that a writ from a British High Court is
involved. 

You may all howl that this is not possible, that posts could be
forged, etc, etc, but it appears that in this case, a participant is
taking the challenge to an extreme.

In the UK, it is possible to lose a libel suit if you damage
somebody's reputation, truth or not!



-- 
John Nash                           (nash at nrcbsa.bio.nrc.ca)
Institute for Biological Sciences,  National Research Council of Canada,
                 Yet another Aussie-in-exile ;-)
      *** Disclaimer:  All opinions are mine, not NRC's! ***