On Thu, Mar 20, 2003 at 12:01:26PM -0500, Martinez, Michael - CSREES/ISTM wrote:
> > > Also, you may find yourself with legal problems if you
> > > allow someone to post illegal material to your list.
> > 
> > Oh please, what are you trying to threaten people because
> > you can't be bothered to filter your own email? Why don't we 
> > just censor all information.  That way we'll all have more 
> > freedom, right?
> 
> I'm looking at it from the perspective that you can get sued if you don't
> take care to make reasonable precautions to protect the information that
> comes off your server from containing illegal content.

a)  Which illegal content would that be?  (Note that the content of spam
is, ne general, perfectly legal.  The method of distributing it may be
illegal in some areas, but the content is not.)

b)  While I can see a case being made that a moderated list must "make
reasonable precautions" to keep the content legal, I suspect that an
unmoderated list would be considered more akin to a common carrier
(e.g., telephone companies) than a content provider (e.g., newspapers
or magazines), which places responsibility for list posts right back
where it belongs:  With the person who posts it, not the list admin.
(IANAL, TINLA, etc.)

c)  I've never heard of a list admin even being threatened with legal
action over the content of list messages except in cases where the list
was explicitly dedicated to the distribution of illegal content.