[Two thoughts: (1) This is yet another example of spineless, craven
university administrators. (2) Anyone who's going to criticize said
spineless, craven university administrators should rely on technology --
not the law -- to protect their anonymity. Thanks to Ian for forwarding.
--Declan]
*******
From: "D. Ian Hopper" <ihopper_at_ap.org>
To: "Declan McCullagh" <declan_at_well.com>
Subject: Different topic...
Date: Tue, 23 Oct 2001 12:03:55 -0400
Message-ID: <NDBBLKAPMMCGKEJOBIOEEEAKCFAA.ihopper_at_ap.org>
MIME-Version: 1.0
X-Priority: 3 (Normal)
X-MSMail-Priority: Normal
^Magistrate: University's Web critics must be revealed; school wants to sue
for defamation<
¶ ALEXANDRIA, La. (AP) _ A Web hosting company must reveal the anonymous
people behind an Internet site that has called the administration at the
University of Louisiana-Monroe incompetent and accused top officials of
lying, a magistrate ordered.
¶ The information must be provided to Richard Baxter, the university's
vice president for external affairs, who wants to file a defamation lawsuit.
The magistrate also ordered Homestead Technologies Inc. to provide computer
logs of all people who have posted, published or provided any content to the
site.
¶ An unopposed motion asking for the information was filed last week in
federal court. The order, which was signed Thursday, was made public Monday.
¶ Baxter declined comment about the court order, as did Michael Rymes, who
represents the people behind the Web site.
¶ In his petition asking for the order, Baxter cited examples of what he
called "extreme, outrageous and malicious content" on the site:
¶ _ That outgoing university president Lawson Swearingen has converted
funds from the university's athletic foundation to a slush fund.
¶ _ That Swearingen has lied to university boosters who have been "conned,
stiffed and lied to by a dishonorable man."
¶ _ That "Baxter's job is to make sure that Swearingen's incompetence and
the university's state of decline under Swearingen are kept undercover."
Yahoo apparently hasn't picked it up yet, so I can't offer a URL. But that's
the entire piece.
- Ian.
-------------------------------------------
> D. Ian Hopper
> AP Technology Writer
> 2021 K St., 6th Floor, Washington DC 20006
> W: 202.776.9595 | Cell: 202.415.9595 | F: 801.991.3356
> Office e-mail: ihopper_at_ap.org | Mobile e-mail: ihopper_at_voicestream.net
> AIM: dihopper | PGP key at certserver.pgp.com
-------------------------------------------
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
POLITECH -- Declan McCullagh's politics and technology mailing list
You may redistribute this message freely if you include this notice.
Declan McCullagh's photographs are at http://www.mccullagh.org/
To subscribe to Politech: http://www.politechbot.com/info/subscribe.html
This message is archived at http://www.politechbot.com/
-------------------------------------------------------------------------
Received on Oct 23 2001
Intro
