UWA Rindos case writ threats spark storm

By PETER MORRIS

THE University of WA has created a storm over legal threats it has made public in an attempt to stop publication of an Internet address on containing information on its long-running dispute with estranged academic David Rindos.

The university alleges a World Wide Web site on a computer at the University of Buffalo in the United States contains information which defames UWA Vice-Chancellor Fay Gale and other senior academics.

The site, which can be acceessed by any computer connected to the Internet, contains a mass of material on Dr Rindos' failure to be granted tenure by the university and other matters.

The university's lawyers, Freehill Hollingdale and Page, have written to Brian Martin at the University of Wollongong in New South Wales claiming his distribution of an address is a republication of the defamation.

The lawyers have asked Dr Martin to give UWA an assurance he will not publish the address again.

They said if Dr Martin did not agree to the request, UWA would be forced to consider recommending to tis staff members that action be taken against him.

UWA Acting Vice-Chancellor Alan Robson said the university had asked Dr Martin not to publish the address.

"Brian Martin was a bit naive in suggesting that people should read that home page to get a balance vied of the whole issue," Professor Robson said. "We think to be drawing attention to this site is a bit unnecessary."

The university's action follows the publication of a number of letters from Dr Martin to newspapers outlining aspects of the Rindos case and including the World WIde Web address.

According to DR Martin, the Australian newspaper's higher education supplement, Campus Review, and the ABC's Education Report have received similar letters over their publication of the address.

Campus Review editor Warren Osmond confirmed he had received a letter threatening legal action unless the publication gave an undertaking not to publish the address again.

Dr Osmond said they had replied that simply drawing attention to the site did not constitue republication.

Professor Robson said UWA and its lawyers remained confident if their legal position and were drafting another letter reaffirming it. He said they were also examining the possiblity of taking legal action against the University of Buffalo site.

UWA's response to the Uinversity of Buffalo site has an ironic twist -- Dr Rindos has a place in Internet history as the world's first successful litigant in a Net defamation case.

Dr Rindos was awarded $40,000 damages after successfully suing fellow archaeologist Gil Hadwick early in 1994 over defamatory remarks made in an Internet mailing list of professional colleagues. The action was not defended.