Newsgroups: news.admin
Path: utzoo!henry
From: henry@utzoo.uucp (Henry Spencer)
Subject: Re: Who defines Net.Porn ?
Message-ID: <1988Oct1.215721.10566@utzoo.uucp>
Organization: U of Toronto Zoology
References: <1278@cbnews.ATT.COM> <4805@whuts.UUCP> <3498@c3pe.UUCP> <2647@swlabs.UUCP> <12588@pollux.UUCP>
Date: Sat, 1 Oct 88 21:57:21 GMT

In article <12588@pollux.UUCP> wnp@dcs.UUCP (Wolf N. Paul) writes:
>...as has been pointed out before, sites like uunet, which do not originate
>postings, are rather in the position of a common carrier, like the phone
>company...

As has also been pointed out before, whether Usenet or any particular site
on it (e.g. uunet) really is a common carrier is most unclear.  The
Usenix folks got a legal opinion on this some time ago; it said, roughly,
"this falls in a gray area between publishers and common carriers; there
is no close precedent; nobody can be sure how a court would rule; there is
a definite possibility that some sort of intermediate status, combining
some features of both, would be the outcome".  I believe that uunet says
that it considers itself a common carrier, and tries to act like one, but
as far as I know, that is based on hope rather than solid legal backing.
-- 
The meek can have the Earth;    |    Henry Spencer at U of Toronto Zoology
the rest of us have other plans.|uunet!attcan!utzoo!henry henry@zoo.toronto.edu