> Yes. Your service is facilitating the communication. If two people get > into a fight through your list, carry it off into private email and it > turns abusive, you still have responsibility, because you still have a > liability issue. How much liability depends on the situation and who > does what, but don't for a second think the court won't see you as at > least partially liable as the owner of the source of the abuse.
This is utterly ridiculous. I'm not an attorney, but a law degree isn't necessary to see the obvious holes in this so-called "logic".
For one, e-mail could not possibly hold up as evidence in a court of law. It is far too easy to fake.
There was an AOL subscriber on one of my lists who was very abusive to other list members both on- and off-list. Can I sue AOL because it facilitated the abusive communications? Can each member of that list also sue AOL? Gee, I don't think so!
If this was true there would be no Internet. It would have been litigated out of existence years ago. Millions of lawsuits would be filed every day.
...Bob
