FNG
9th Jul 2001, 17:05
This has nothing to do with aviation, but I would be very grateful for any information from those involved in running pprune or others with experience of operating internet services on the extent to which such services can be pro-active in keeping material off their sites which would be illegal for some reason (eg defamatory, obscene, or in contempt of court).
I suspect that for the most part the service provider (whether it be an ISP or the operator of a bulletin board) has to be re-active, acting promptly to remove material once it appears and perhaps banning those responsible, if known, from accessing the service. I assume that even a bb as tightly and well managed as pprune appears to be cannot so configure its software as to prevent the appearance of particular categories of material, as it would be impractical to set blocks or filters which would detect offending material without also catching harmless stuff, and which could not simnply be evaded by those well aware of the dumb literal-mindeness of even the smartest of computers.
I freely confess that I am asking this question for reasons germane to a legal case I am working on at the moment (I'm a barrister). My only mitigation for this crime is that I have sometimes offered fellow ppruners free (and I hope accurate) legal advice on various topics in other fora.
Thanks for any help you can offer. You can get reasonably technical in your replies if you like, as although I am sometimes forced by financial exigencies to dress in public like an 18th century clergyman, I do have a reasonable 21st century layperson's understanding of grey things with buttons on.
PS: for any real or virtual lawyers wishing to join in, I already know about the decision in Godfrey v Demon Internet, and the E-Commerce Directive.
[ 09 July 2001: Message edited by: FNG ]
I suspect that for the most part the service provider (whether it be an ISP or the operator of a bulletin board) has to be re-active, acting promptly to remove material once it appears and perhaps banning those responsible, if known, from accessing the service. I assume that even a bb as tightly and well managed as pprune appears to be cannot so configure its software as to prevent the appearance of particular categories of material, as it would be impractical to set blocks or filters which would detect offending material without also catching harmless stuff, and which could not simnply be evaded by those well aware of the dumb literal-mindeness of even the smartest of computers.
I freely confess that I am asking this question for reasons germane to a legal case I am working on at the moment (I'm a barrister). My only mitigation for this crime is that I have sometimes offered fellow ppruners free (and I hope accurate) legal advice on various topics in other fora.
Thanks for any help you can offer. You can get reasonably technical in your replies if you like, as although I am sometimes forced by financial exigencies to dress in public like an 18th century clergyman, I do have a reasonable 21st century layperson's understanding of grey things with buttons on.
PS: for any real or virtual lawyers wishing to join in, I already know about the decision in Godfrey v Demon Internet, and the E-Commerce Directive.
[ 09 July 2001: Message edited by: FNG ]