As you have noticed and mentioned I donīt post to any other boards
anymore under my own name, and I have canceled my forum as well. Just
too many people were posting abuse. The liability is also just too
great if somebody misbehaves badly. Where I live that could cost a lot
of money, as the owner of the forum is also liable.
Generally speaking, Usenet itself is not owned by anybody, it is a
collection of distributed servers owned by various people and
organisations. This effectively means that you can not make the owners
liable for anything at all, as there are de facto no individual
owners. This does not however mean that people have no recourse in
regard to some misuse or abuse, although as with many things, this
depends mainly on your own resources.
Attempting to stop somebody in America from defaming you in some way
if you are sitting in Holland, or Belgium for instance, is going to be
difficult and expensive. This is also only of importance if you are
somehow known to others in that or other countries. If nobody knows
you, they canīt defame you. I have some personal experience of
problems like this.
Usually, your best option is to simply ignore those concerned, or stop
posting to that group. Concerted attacks from groups are rare, and
unless you can actually prove damages, in the form of financial loss,
then you are probably wasting your time anyway.
Most providers will however assist you in preventing copyright
violations if you ask them to. Although if you donīt want people
copying something, donīt post it anywhere!
The whole face of society is changing as a result of the internet,
people copying everything from whole movies to private photos on a
massive scale. Same goes for music and literature. No telling where
this will end. Also, it is only a highly privileged portion of
humanity which uses the net like this. I have no idea what the
eventual effects will be. Hopefully positive, but nobody really knows.
Theoretically at least, the more information you have, then the better
your position to maintain your own and otherīs freedom, but in
practice, huge sectors are misused for various scams, people bicker
and defame each other individually, regardless of any truth or
justice, and large sectors are also criminal in nature.
All one can do is try to be careful.
Anyway, hop this was of help to you. My sig means "Tight Lines" which
is ( or was ) a common greeting among UK game anglers.
TL
MC
http://www.mike1.bplaced.net/Wikka/HomePage