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From: rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu (Wombat)
Newsgroups: news.misc
Subject: Re: Forgeries (legal aspects thereof)
Message-ID: <4067@j.cc.purdue.edu>
Date: Mon, 27-Apr-87 21:16:22 EDT
Article-I.D.: j.4067
Posted: Mon Apr 27 21:16:22 1987
Date-Received: Thu, 30-Apr-87 04:12:08 EDT
References: <9405@decwrl.DEC.COM> <655@desint.UUCP>
Reply-To: rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu.UUCP (Wombat)
Organization: Purdue University Computing Center
Lines: 27

In article <655@desint.UUCP> geoff@desint.UUCP (Geoff Kuenning) writes:
>Since several people have made accusations of illegal behavior on the
>part of the system administrator who pulled Foothead's account, though,
>I think it's also worth pointing out that forgery is definitely a crime.
>So is slander.

The problem is that there is no legalistic approach to this.  Forgery
(of certain items) is a crime; I sincerely doubt that Usenet articles number
among those items, even by the broadest definitions.  Slander is difficult
to prove due to the numerous defenses possible.

However, an even simpler defense exists: the accused can claim that he or
she was not the one using the account at the time the alleged offense took
place.  Unless a witness observed the accused actually committing the
offense, then only circumstantial evidence exists---and given the ease
with which that evidence may be created and destroyed by anyone with the
requisite knowledge, it is very unlikely that a conviction would result.
[I am not a lawyer.]

Given the current status of the software (news, notes, uucp) and the state
of the network at large, I would say that any and all accusations of this
nature would be difficult, if not impossible, to conclusively prove. Perhaps
it would be better to avoid the legal quagmire and rely on the judgement
of the site administrators involved--though that too has its drawbacks.
-- 
Rich Kulawiec, rsk@j.cc.purdue.edu, j.cc.purdue.edu!rsk
PUCC News Administrator