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

[Karl Schaffarczyk]

>Linkers
>
>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


Tony, Link,
my feelings on this issue are:

a) their news server did contain certain newsgroups at the time.
b) you can't change history.
c) what is your position if I were to approach you and state that I 
wished for a previous posting of mine to be altered in the archives?
d) where do you draw the line? If you permit this to go ahead, does 
this make you legally liable for the content in the archives?

Personally, I would say "no" until such time as I was served with a 
sealed court order requesting I take down the information or alter 
the information. This way, I would not be held responsible for 
content, the courts would be. Maybe this seems like a cop-out, but if 
various people wanted to add a disclaimer to just a few percent of 
posts on link which may have been relevant to that person, then you'd 
have alot of work on your hands inserting all of the disclaimers. I 
feel a line should be drawn, and the easiest line to draw is a court 
order.

Regards
Karl
=8)

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