On Mon, 21 Aug 2000 [log in to unmask] wrote:
>
>
> Could collegues enlighten me as to what control mechanisms they have in place to
> ensure that offensive or illegal material is not accessed or stored either
> intentionally or by accident on a PC from access to the Internet? Is having a
> policy that staff should not access or store such material enough? Presumably
> not, given that this policy doesn't cover accidents - seemingly innocent search
> queries can bring up some quite startling pages, and anyone is free to write
> emails which contain offensive language, which, until they are opened and
> deleted, are stored on a PC.
>
> I have been told that 'This may expose you or your service to direct
> litigation.' but think it is scaremongering.
Fortunately the MCG list is not prone to offensive language - yet. If it
was, your humble listowners would impose moderation (which would, of
course, mean that the offensive messages would be stored on the NMS server
until deleted....).
There seems to be an immense amount of ignorance about how internet
browsers and caches, work. Unfortunately all the automated systems that I
have heard of are prone to trapping innocent messages as well as those of
an offensive or illegal nature. The infamous three English football team
names containing naughty words are a case in point and I did hear of a
Scottish local authority employee whose e-mail account was suspended
because he kept using an offensive word, "Willie", in his signature.
My own website unwittingly harboured a link to a (fortunately soft) porn
site until this was pointed out to me and eliminated. Someone had hijacked
a legitimate Shostakovich site and used it to direct people to an "Asian
Girls" site.
There seems to be an immense amount of ignorance about how internet
browsers and caches, work, and innocent people are at risk of being
suspected of all sorts of dreadful activities until the authorities come
to realise just how easy it is to stumble across something awful, and
unwittingly download it. I would imagine that an institution should be
reasonably safe as long as it takes some sort of sensible precautions, and
has some sort of policy in place, but it all depends on the judiciary at the
end of the day and who knows how long it will take before they are aware
of how these things work?
Meanwhile, until the MCG is properly constituted, I would imagine that we
all have unlimited liability for anything which this organisation is
deemed responsible. There's a sobering thought!
---
Ian
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Ian O. Morrison, Scottish Museums Documentation Officer
http://homestead.deja.com/user.ian_o_morrison/index.html
Hostes alienigeni me abduxerunt
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