Re: Web Archive of Mailing List
Susan Ross - InterLegal Services (intrlegl@netzone.com)
Mon, 10 Jun 1996 11:43:57 -0400 (EDT)
Date: Mon, 10 Jun 1996 11:43:57 -0400 (EDT)
Message-Id: <199606101543.LAA02016@foyer.homecom.com>
From: Susan Ross - InterLegal Services <intrlegl@netzone.com>
Subject: Re: Web Archive of Mailing List
At 09:31 PM 6/8/96 -0400, you wrote:
>
>Lets face it, when you send a message to a mailing list, you are
>participating in a very public discussion. How can anyone expect that
>something sent to a mailing list and which is transmitted to 500+ people,
>all of whom simply need to send a message in order to subscribe to the list,
>is in any way private? This is about as public as you can get without
>standind on a park bench and screaming the thoughts to the rest of the world.
>
>If I sent an e-mail to one person I know, or a few people at a time, the
>story might be different. I think a clear distinction can be made in the
>nature of the list. If you were sending to a list that you knew to be
>restricted, and you could reasonably know the people on the list (at least
>who was likely to be on the list, i.e., the accounting department in a
>corporate setting perhaps), there might be some expectation of privacy. But
>when you send a message to a list that is freely open to the public, then
>you have sent a message into a forum that is most certainly public. And
>public messages are not entitled to any sort of expectation of privacy if
>you freely put the message into the public forum.
>
I have to agree with Sam. Although the list limits the people to whom a
posting initially can go (it must be a subscriber), I do not view anything I
post as being private. Frankly, other than those who post regularly on this
list, I do not know who else subscribes. There could be ten subscribers or
five hundred. In addition, anything that I post easily can be forwarded to
anyone who is not on the list. I certainly do not view this forum as
"private" by ay stretch of the imagination. Why would posting the
discussions on a web site have any more of a chilling effect than the fact
that a posting can be forwarded to *any* e-mail address or printed out for
anyone's viewing?
More importantly, however, I would hope that posting the messages on a web
site would serve several purposes. A) It would let others know of the
types of issues that are arising regarding ethics and the Internet, and the
thoughts that others have regarding these issues. B) Hopefully, it would
encourage others to join the listserv to start participating in these
discussions. I think that many attorneys in cyberspace, whether they have
been online for a while or are new to the medium, could provide insight to
some of these discussions. C) It furthers the purpose of the list and the
Internet -- to facilitate communications, foster discussions, and help to
disseminate information.
Susan B. Ross, Esq.
InterLegal Services
"Internet Consulting for the Legal Community"
1928 E. Highland, Suite F3-416
Phoenix, AZ 85016
602/604-8015
intrlegl@netzone.com
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