Mgt,
Came across a piece of legislation this a.m. which may be related to
your query. An institution could be liable under the Defamation Act
1996 as the publisher of comments made by students. Apparently, the law
on this area is unclear (no surprise there) but the way I read it is -
if an institution has facilitated a service used by a student to make
defamatory comments, it must ensure it removes the statement as soon as
it was informed that it was untrue. It seems to say that it is"the
effect of the communication" and not the "intention of the sended" as
the key element.
Friendsreunited.com(?) had a similar problem if I recall and had to
pull the plug on their comments page.
The piece I read (a local legal flyer touting for business) quoted
Godfrey v Demon Internet Limited as a case ruling. Hope this is of some
help although I suspect it probably only stirs an already muddy pond
with a big stick! ! . Some mailers may have a better handle on this
than me.
Peter
Peter Wilson
Legislative Compliance & HR Information Officer
Department of Human Resources
University of Paisley
0141-848-3703
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>>> Margaret Orr <[log in to unmask]> 05/01/02 02:42pm >>>
Can anyone advise on the following?
We are currently working on an on-line student feedback form.
The question is:
Is the system which allows anonymous feedback compliant under the DP
Act?
The situation we are trying to resolve is where a member of staff(the
data subject?) sees a defamatory comment about themselves in the
feedback summary and cannot identify the originator of the comment.
Thanks
Margaret orr
Data Protection Officer
University of York
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