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On 2004-03-02, Brad Norrish wrote:

> The point being made is those who do should be very careful and wary of
> distributing posts that could result in legal action.
> 
> I personally would be terrified sick if I was responcible for some of the
> posts that have made it to this list.

    The "DNS List" is an Internet mailing list that facilitates general
    discussion on .au related issues. It is an unmoderated forum, and robust
    debate is encouraged. A light-touch administration policy is enforced.
    -- http://www.auda.org.au/contact/

    Assume that individuals speak for themselves, and what they say does not
    represent their organization (unless stated explicitly).
    -- "Netiquette Guidelines" http://www.ietf.org/rfc/rfc1855

    Do not blame the system administrator for the behavior of the system users.
    -- ibid

It would seem to me the who wrote the email and posted it to the list would be
responsible.  Of course, I am not a lawyer, so I would not be surprised if the
law didn't match what I think is reasonable.

> A genuine question, in light of some of the posts that have been made to
> this list over the last year or so and with such a large amount of money at
> stake (my quote for a defamation action in WA is $150 000) have you received
> advice as to the legal exposure of a mailing list with regards to the posts
> that it distributes?
> 
> I would assume that the same law applies to the internet as other media.

I'm not sure about defamation; however, this certainly isn't true of our
classification laws, for example, material legally sold in print in not legal to
download.

Yours sincerely,

- -- Mark John Suter  | I know that you  believe  you understand
suter§humbug.org.au | what you think I said, but I am not sure
gpg key id 2C71D63D | you realise that what you  heard  is not
mobile 0411 262 316 | what I meant.        Robert J. McCloskey
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