[LINK] A legal request to add a disclaimer to an old link posting

[Roger Clarke]

>[South East Sydney Area Health Service] have now requested that a 
>disclaimer be inserted in the posting indicating in some form of 
>words that they have no connection to child pornography.
...
>I'm inclined to say yes. What do you think?

We need to think about the kinds of precedents that exist.
(1)  'the best antidote to speech is more speech'
      i.e. if someone thinks a comment reflects badly on them, don't demand
      that they sue you;  but rather append something that indicates there's
      a difference of opinion;
(2)  under privacy law and practice, it's well-established that, where a
      holder of a record (e.g. a credit bureau) believes it has reasonable
      grounds for not expunging the record, it is expected to accept a note
      from the aggrieved person, and make it available on any occasion that
      anyone accesses that record (e.g. 'it's unfair of the bureau to list
      this late payment of my debts, because I was in a coma at the time').

So in principle I support something being added.

But I haven't thought about the mechanics of how one does such a 
thing in email list archives!!

It might be good if the sentence or so that they ask to be added 
makes sense in the context.  In circumstances like these, a 
half-baked statement will frequently draw more flak than silence 
would have.


Antony Barry <tony at tony-barry.emu.id.au>:

>Late last year ANU received a formal complaint from a section of the 
>NSW Government, the South East Sydney Area Health Service 
>http://www.sesahs.nsw.gov.au/ , regarding an item posted over two 
>years ago to link.
>
>The item is - http://www.anu.edu.au/mail-archives/link/link0007/0249.html
>
>This posting listed sexually related newsgroups which were located 
>on the SESAHS news server and which are now no longer available. 
>SESAHS are concerned that when a search is made for SESAHS on public 
>search engines this posting comes up is could mislead people as to 
>their role.
>
>They requested that the posting be removed. The ANU replied formally 
>that they were not prepared to do this.
>
>They have now requested that a disclaimer be inserted in the posting 
>indicating in some form of words that they have no connection to 
>child pornography.
>
>While ANU sees reasons not to alter the historical record they are 
>being pressured on this and the original document would remain 
>intact but with an addendum. They regard the link archives as mine 
>and seek my permission to do this. I regard the archives as 
>belonging to the list and I seek your comments.
>
>Note that -
>
>1. These are the old archives which are indexed by search engines 
>and are open to the public.
>
>2. The posting would still remain in the new mailman archives in 
>it's original form. These are not indexed by search engines and are 
>only available to members of the list.
>
>I'm inclined to say yes. What do you think?
>
>Tony
>
>phone : +61 2 6241 7659 | mailto:me at Tony-Barry.emu.id.au
>mobile: +61 4 1242 0397 | http://tony-barry.emu.id.au
>
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>Link at mailman.anu.edu.au
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-- 
Roger Clarke              http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/

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Visiting Professor in the eCommerce Program, University of Hong Kong
Visiting Professor in the Baker Cyberspace Law & Policy Centre, U.N.S.W
Visiting Fellow in Computer Science, Australian National University