I strongly suggest that you take legal advise on this. Its al very nice to see the list members digging up legal stuff from the net, and guesing what the impact could be on mailing list archives, but to really get your ass covered, for _any_ mailinglist archive in NZ, get a lawyer and an official opinion. Waikato Uni should probably consider this. Or you can ofcourse stick your head in the sand, and wait until the day some other lawyer bites you in the ass :)
IANAL, the `source' of the information is NOT this list, it's whois.domainz.net.nz and they have T&C's giving the registrant ZER0 options on privacy, so any court cases will be landing on the doorstep at Domainz, they're releasing the information and will have to defend their own T&C's. This list is archived publicly, and like most `public' reporting, will have adequate defences for defamation and uttering. Even if someone posts to the list a 100% defamatory statement, about a NZ corporation or individual, the case will have no merit, the process of publication is NOT edited, it's automatic, "no dirty hands". I feel that editing the list will expose the UoW to legal action, the editors will get sued for not verifying information, and for not taking prudent editorial steps. Editing is a can o' worms the Uni can't afford to open. Furtherto, several people on this list could easily publicise their own archives and editotialise, in an adverse fashion, against the UoW's editing decisions. On a personal level, the staff at UoW who look after this list will NOT have editorial powers or scope of authority over the external communications of the Uni, even as webmasters. Material is always drafted, approved by an authority, and published formerly. The archives are totally outside this scope, and once editorial control is taken of the archives, the information "belongs" to the UoW, who will disavow knowledge and hang the said staff members out to dry for publishing unauthorised editorial content. Moving the archives is a good idea, this would circumvent the privacy problems, and the UoW publishing problems. Joe, as an NZ citizen and the "owner" of the archive would still be responsible under NZ law for defamatory content if he exercises editorial control of the archive. --- Terence C. Giufre-Sweetser +---------------------------------+--------------------------+ | TereDonn Telecommunications Ltd | Phone +61-[0]7-32369366 | | 1/128 Bowen St, SPRING HILL | FAX +61-[0]7-32369930 | | PO BOX 1054, SPRING HILL 4004 | Mobile +61-[0]414-663053 | | Queensland Australia | http://www.tdce.com.au | +---------------------------------+--------------------------+ - To unsubscribe from nznog, send email to majordomo(a)list.waikato.ac.nz where the body of your message reads: unsubscribe nznog