Is it legal for a webmaster of a private list server belonging to a
non-profit organization to prevent a member in good standing from
using the list server to send material to the membership?

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Request for Question Clarification by googlebrain-ga on 01 Aug 2002 11:08 PDT

Do you mean to prevent this members use of the List Server to send the
material, or prevent them in other ways?

Hello Ancientphilo,

The following is not legal advice, but general legal information. I
will provide some references so you can follow up further if
appropriate.

As others have noted, the owner of the server can set the rules pretty
much any way they want to. However, you indicate that the person being
blacklisted is a "member of good standing" of a non-profit
organization. Let me assume that the person has paid a membership fee
in exchange for services provided by that organization. This may be
sufficient to establish a contract between the organization and the
person.

If the list service is one of those services, AND the person has a
written agreement from the organization to provide that service to all
"members in good standing", then that person may have grounds for a
breach of contract. The remedies at that point may be already called
out in the membership agreement.

If this needs to be pursued further, I suggest a thorough review of
the membership agreement to see what services are provided and the
remedies for a breach of contract (if any). Based on that review, the
person needs to decide what action to take.

I hope this answer has been helpful. For more information on contracts
and breach of contracts, I suggest...

  http://www.iown.com/glossary/BreachofContract.htm (a short summary
of the actions that you can take after a breach of contract)
  http://www.lawyers.com/legal_topics/browse_by_topic/browse_parent/browse_child/content/show_content.php?articleid=1001077
  (a longer summary of what a breach is and remedies)
  http://www.duhaime.org/ca-con8.htm (a canadian site, but well
written and many of the same principles apply in the US)
  http://academic.udayton.edu/aep/remedies/remedy00.htm (part of
coursework on law)
  
If this is not clear, don't hesitate to ask for clarification.
  --Maniac

Of course.  There is very little regulation of the internet.  An
organization has a right to "moderate" its list server in any way it
chooses.

the organization owns the list server system so obviously it has the
right to regulate it - usualy they have rules to eliminate off-topic
posts, spam, etc., as it is in their interest to provde the
information they want provided. Some are more strict than others.
Usual attitude is - if you don't like it - don't use it.