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From: draves@harvard.ARPA (Richard Draves)
Newsgroups: net.news.stargate
Subject: Re: how to verify an article's submitter
Message-ID: <382@harvard.ARPA>
Date: Thu, 14-Feb-85 22:44:19 EST
Article-I.D.: harvard.382
Posted: Thu Feb 14 22:44:19 1985
Date-Received: Fri, 22-Feb-85 20:30:12 EST
References: <462@aquila.noao.UUCP> <12022@gatech.UUCP>
Organization: Aiken Computation Laboratory, Harvard
Lines: 31

> I write up an article which looks reasonable but which actually is
> libelous in some form or another.  I encrypt it and send it to the
> moderator.  It gets published.  As soon as I see it appear, I send
> frantic sounding messages to the moderator, the keeper of the keys, and
> my system administrator claiming that someone must have broken into my
> account and found my key sitting in a file.  Better yet, I can claim
> that I accidentally had the permissions on the file with my key set to
> public-read.  Prove I didn't.  In fact, to cover myself, I don't
> have to even send out those frantic-sounding messages.  I just have to
> wait until someone complains.  The I can claim something like:
> "I posted WHAT?  The entire Unix kernel?  Never!  I didn't do that!
> Wait...now I understand why my news-key file was set to 644 (or
> why the holder of "root" at my site was chuckling about how he
> 'was going to get even with me.'")

> Gene "6 months and counting" Spafford

What happens if I libel someone while speaking "on the air"?
Don't dial-up radio programs have some sort of libel protection?

Certainly, any system will not be 100% secure.  I would think that
reasonable precautions like a public-key cryptography system would
protect the broadcasters.

Rich
-- 

	"If I am conceited, it is the conceit of an amazing man
	 who has never found any surpassing himself."

						Al-Mutanabbi