I host an archive of email messages that go back to the early 1990s. They’re for the the Harp-L discussion group, a lively bunch of harp players that are still quite active.
I received a message today from a person who claims that his name occurs on some messages on the group, and he wants it removed. There area bunch of messages concerning the guy on Harp-L, and many of them aren’t pleasant. Some suggest that he is distributing viruses. Some by this person himself are inflammatory.
I can probably find the entries with this guy’s name on it and change them. It is several hours work and I would rather not.
These messages are mostly about 8 years old and have been on the internet for years.
What do you think I should do?
2 Comments
Ask him to find them and give you the dates.
I changed the software on that server to change the guys name to the phrase “Some Dude” whenever it appears on a page. Luckily I did not have to hunt down all of the occurrences and edit them.
I did not answer his email, as I believe that he cannot copyright his own name and prevent me from using it.
In most cases he is the author of the messages in question and they appeared in a public forum where he knew they were public. In other cases there is a reply to the message he left addressing him, which he had every reason to expect.
In any case I am not the owner of the information. It is owned by the current administrators of Harp-L.org. I am only a programmer who converted the archives after their server went to server hell.