Liability/Responsibility analogies

[Nick Arnett]

At 12:28 PM 5/6/97 -0700, Ronnie Morgan wrote:
>At 09:48 AM 5/6/97 -0700, Dan Lester wrote:
>>Really?  What if your local flasher comes in and shows his
>>(or her, though I've not seen that since the days of streaking)
>>privates to your patrons.  Are YOU personally responsible? 
>>I'd never claim to be.
>
>True, but the library isn't paying the guy to come in and do it.  The fact
>that the library is paying for the computers, and paying for the internet
>service, does, indeed, make them responsible for whatever is on that
>computer.  Disclaimer's would help, but you're still responsible.

It is very important to use appropriate analogies when trying to understand
emerging issues like this.  This is not a good analogy because it implies a
non-fact: that paying for a service makes the service provider responsible
for all events and occurences arising from that services.  Tthe existence of
common carriers, who have virtually no responsibility for what they carry,
as well as a host of others who have varying degrees of responsiblity and
liability, demonstrates the falsity of the implication.

As I argued in a contentious message a few weeks ago, libraries are not
common carriers.  I'd argue equally strongly that they are not publishers,
either, which is the opposite end of the spectrum.  The difficult problem is
to find the right analogy in between.

Nick

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