Bizzare Civil Suit Regarding IRC

[Lorax <lorax@tao.ca>]

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	If someone could point me to some relevant journalism,
or even better, some accurate reporting regarding the Civil 
case described in http://www.maniacs.net/claim/ I would like
to see it.  I am very disturbed by paragraph 38, as seen in
http://www.maniacs.net/claim/Page18.jpg as it seems it might
set a precident involving a variety of things online.  It's
really quite silly, but scary at the same time.  

Paragraph 38 includes the sentences:

Notwithstanding their roles as operators and administrators,
[ list of names ], did nothing to prevent and control the 
Defamatory Statements being published on their systems.
As publishers who routinely moderate and control content,
they are jointly and severally responsible for all defamatory 
statements made on their systems,
including without limitation the ones listed above.


Well, that IRC was a published forum is great news to me, as it
will be to the many thousands of people who use it every day
I am sure. :)  The idea that IRC ops (and perhaps by extention,
list moderators, ISP operatiors, telephone companies) are 
responsible for "protecting" participants is silly.  

---
Lorax


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