This is a terrible thing to have to post while everyone's having such fun, but it's been something I've had to think about recently at work.

What would happen if something libellous was posted here, and the libelee (obviously made up word, where's Shawn? got to hear about it?

If I post, for instance "Consolidated Widgets are a terrible company and are about to go bankrupt", we could, at least theoretically, be liable, right?

I'm just wondering who would get sued. If it's an individual, like Jesse or something, that's quite a scary thought.

Do we have a policy, first off, on deleting legally problematic content?

And if it happened, Joss forbid, what would be the consequences?

This is tough for a lot of reasons. For one thing, even though web stuff is what I'd consider libellous - my understanding is that it has sometimes been handled (in the courts) as slander. My guess is that different states treat it differently, too. People are allowed to state their opinions so how would we even draw a line? Are there Buffista attorneys?

Are there Buffista attorneys?

I don't work in the area. But IIRC -- Libel is written, slander is spoken. So if it's posted on the Web, it could be libel but not slander. Not sure if there are any other differences between the two.

The line between libel and not depends on who you're talking about. It's harder for public figures to prove that they were libelled.

Opinion usually isn't libel. To take John's example, "Consolidated Widgets is a terrible company" probably isn't libel -- it could mean anything. "They're about to go bankrupt" could be libel, if (1) they aren't, and (2) you know (or have reason to believe) they aren't.

As to the Web, I'm not sure how liability plays out. I vaguely remember hearing about unsuccessful lawsuits against AOL and/or Prodigy on the subject, but that could be memory playing tricks on me. I'd argue that a Web site is like the phone company or the Postal Service as opposed to a newspaper or magazine -- just a conduit for information, with no control over the nature of the information. The problem with that argument is that the Webmasters do have the ability to edit content.

Fred, that our words are written here is why I say it would make sense to me that it is libel. I remember being surprised when a Bronzer-attorney told me that some cases had been handled as slander - I don't remember if it was because there is question as to whether or not things posted can be equated to things officially published. It made no sense to me at the time, either. I will check with the Bronzer attorney to see if I'm remembering this incorrectly. Whether slander or libel though isn't a big deal. I wouldn't want to see any Buffista bothered about either. Maybe we need to incorporate the phrases "in my opinion", "rumor has it - and I have no idea if this is true" and "allegedly"?

What is Libel?

Don't worry about it, John. Seriously. Consider Microsoft. And all the bbs in all the world, and all the people who hate Microsoft. And yet, have you ever heard of these opinions being silenced by Microsoft's trigger-happy litigation? We don't have nearly enough influence to make this ever, ever an issue.

Brought over from press:

Note -- buffistas.org has a mailing list functionality. I can set up any required ones.

ita, that is so cool (and now that I think of it, I remember you mentioning this before, but maybe it was only to the admins). I can get Yahoo groups, but I'm not crazy about them.

That RULES. ita, can you set up a somervillains@buffistas.org list? Does one have to be a Stompy Foot to add people to it/manage it/etc? What's required to make it all happen?

I'd love to ditch yahoogroups.

I've set up a list. Jen, you're the owner. I haven't poked into the functionality (ezmlm) in depth, but here are the basic commands:

Hi! This is the ezmlm program. I'm managing the somervillains@buffistas.org mailing list.

I'm working for my owner, who can be reached at somervillains-owner@buffistas.org.

This is a generic help message. The message I received wasn't sent to any of my command addresses.

Here is a list of the command addresses supported:

Send mail to the following for info and FAQ for this list:

• <somervillains-info@buffistas.org>
• <somervillains-faq@buffistas.org>

Similar addresses exist for the digest list:

• <somervillains-digest-subscribe@buffistas.org>
• <somervillains-digest-unsubscribe@buffistas.org>

To get messages 123 through 145 (a maximum of 100 per request), mail:

• <somervillains-get.123_145@buffistas.org>

To get an index with subject and author for messages 123-456, mail:

• <somervillains-index.123_456@buffistas.org>

To receive all messages with the same subject as message 12345, send an empty message to:

• <somervillains-thread.12345@buffistas.org>

The messages do not really need to be empty, but I will ignore their content. Only the ADDRESS you send to is important.

You can start a subscription for an alternate address, for example "john@host.domain", just add a hyphen and your address (with '=' instead of '@') after the command word:

• <somervillains-subscribe-john=host.domain@buffistas.org>

To stop subscription for this address, mail:

• <somervillains-unsubscribe-john=host.domain@buffistas.org>

You know, I now remember how I knew that we had mailing list capabilities. It's because I use the admins mailing list. Duh!!!

Is it the weekend yet?

Fred, Shawn - I heard back from the bronzer attorney. She did some poking and says that it usually boils down to libel, so I either heard it from someone else originally, or made the whole damned thing up. Sorry for the confusion.