home *** CD-ROM | disk | FTP | other *** search
- Path: sparky!uunet!wupost!csus.edu!netcom.com!netcomsv!hotcity!davea
- From: davea@hotcity.COM (Dave Anderson)
- Newsgroups: alt.bbs.allsysop
- Subject: Re: *** LEGAL HELP WANTED ***
- References: <o87JwB1w165w@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca>
- Message-ID: <davea.2h63@hotcity.COM>
- Date: 31 Dec 92 05:20:04 PST
- Organization: BBS
- Lines: 35
-
- In article <o87JwB1w165w@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca>, lord@tradent.wimsey.bc.ca
- (Jason Cooper) writes:
- >Anybody here know if it is possible to request "common carrier status"
- >for a BBS? For those of you not familiar with this, or perhaps looking
- >for an american equivalent, this status is granted to services such as
- >radio stations and telephone companies, and absolves them of all
- >responsibility for what happens to transpire through their services. I'm
- >wondering if I can apply for this for my bulletin board so that I am not
- >held responsible for pirated files that rest on my drive though I don't
- >use them. I don't see why this WOULDN'T be granted, but I'm wondering if
- >anybody out there has done this or knows how I might go about doing so.
- >
- > Jason Cooper
-
- This is a LOADED question..... If you have not read or heard of them yet, may
- I recomend that you first check out BBS Digest and Boardwatch. These are the
- two magazines that cater to us in the BBS world (both users and sysops).
- Another sourse is your local sysop group. And then there is a book "Syslaw".
-
- Having just recived my copy of the book (Syslay), I am drawing only from my
- limited (1 year active) experience as a sysop. But, after attending one of the
- United Sysops Assoc. meetings where we had an agent from the FBI as a guest
- speaker, I came away with the feeling that generaly if you know of "criminal
- activity" on your BBS then the "boys in blue" will be after you. This
- knowledage would be that of a reasonalbe person. In other words if you set up
- a BBS that caters to that of "underground" or sharing of copyrited software or
- other like activities, then expect a knock at your door with little sympathy.
- Buth then, if you set up a BBS without any "underground" file or message areas
- and should some kind of undesired activity comes to your attention and you
- corroperate with the powers that be, you have little to noughting to worrie
- about. The book Syslaw goes into excelent detail of this.
-
- I hope this helps a little.
-
- Dave, This T E S T BBS, 408-847-0911
-