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From: wjb@cogsci
Newsgroups: comp.admin.policy
Subject: Re: Canceling someone else's article
Message-ID: <28.May.91.165820.60@cogsci.cog.jhu.edu>
Date: 28 May 91 20:58:20 GMT
References: <1991May28.200304.25371@solbourne.com>
Organization: JHU Cognitive Science Center, Baltimore, MD
Lines: 41

In article <1991May28.200304.25371@solbourne.com> imp@solbourne.com (Warner Losh) writes:
>
>Take a look in rec.games.trivial.<12520@uwm.edu>.

	Couldn't find it on my system...

>I really wanted to cancel this article, but I didn't.  So this brought
>to mind the following question:
>
>	When, if ever, is it ethically OK to cancel an article posted
>	by someone else?

1. When you are the purported author of the article and it is
	in fact a forgery.

2. If you are the moderator of a newsgroup and someone forges an
	"Approved:" header in order to post to the newsgroup.

3. When the original author of the article is incapable of doing
	so and asks you to do so.

	The following might be reasonable...

1. When you are the administrator of the site on which the posting
	originated, and you believe it to be illegal or a forgery for some
	reason.  Preferably you would contact the original author and have
	them do so.

Basically, I don't think you should ever cancel someone else's article.  In
particular, the content (unless illegal) is not germane.  Even when you
think it is illegal, I'm not sure that you should cancel it.  Removing it
from your system and making sure that you don't forward it on should
(hopefully) eliminate any liability that you might be concerned about.  You
may not know the circumstances of the posting and it may in fact be legal.
If you leave the entry in your history file, it will be discarded if you
receive it again from another newsfeed.  Of course, flaming er, "contacting"
the original author is a time honored USENET tradition...

				Bill Bogstad

BTW, Postings from "thor@valhalla.mil" are not "forgeries"...