UNIVERSITY of GLASGOW

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Legal constraints on electronic publishing

  • Defamation, Libel and Slander
  • Telecommunications Act 1984
  • Obscene Publications Act

    • Material to be transmitted via the University's IT facilities, in particular any material to be published via the WWW, must be free from any statements that are defamatory, libelous or slanderous. There is a large body of law both statute and case law that applies in such cases. In general, material should not contain anything that could be seen as insulting to any individual or group. It should not be damaging to personal or professional reputation of any individual or group. This applies even if the statements are true; the truth of a statement may not protect it from being defamatory.

    This act makes it an offence to transmit messages or other matter via a public telecommunications system (and this includes the University's local and wide area digital networks as well as its telephone systems) that is indecent, obscene, or menacing or messages causing annoyance, inconvenience or needless anxiety to another by a message that the sender knows to be false.

    Placing material on the University's IT facilities, in particular on the WWW, in such a way that it can be accessed by several people constitutes its publication. Under the Obscene Publications act and the Criminal Justice Act, it is an offence to publish material that is obscene.

    It should be noted that:
    • should the University detect that its IT facilities have been used in a way which breaches any of these laws to the extent that it believes may constitute a criminal offence, this would be reported to the police, consequently those responsible may face criminal prosecution;
    • material that does not constitute a breach of any of these laws may still be such as to bring discredit on the University and to be inconsistent with the aims and functions of the university, in such cases although legal the material will be in breach of the university's Regulations and Code of Conduct for the Use of IT Facilities, in this case those responsible may be subject to University diciplinary sanctions.

    Under both the sets of circumstances above, the removal of the material in will be required, pending investigation, to protect the University's position.

    Issued by the Director of the Computing Service on behalf of the University.
    Last reviewed on 5-Oct-98