Rindos v Hardwick

Rindos v. Hardwick was a landmark case of Internet defamation in 1993 in which Western Australian lawyers representing a visiting American academic sought to create a precedent by deeming an email sent by Gil Hardwick to have alleged paedophilia against David Rindos, a probationary lecturer in Archaeology at the University of Western Australia. Mr Hardwick was living at the time with his family in Derby as part of a field trip into the Great Sandy Desert, in the far north-west of Western Australia. As far as can be ascertained Mr Hardwick had no experienced any professional differences with Dr Rindos and hardly knew him, beyond the constant disruption being suffered by students throughout the scandals among staff over his insistence on being granted tenure; over preferential homosexual and lesbian engagement between staff and selected students; and more generally over the disruption to their studies caused by radical changes wrought by the Hawke Labor Government.

My Hardwick's email seeking to clarify the situation in the midst of global homophobic hysteria was posted to the Usenet newsgroup sci.anthropology.

The Usenet posting was made via DIALix, arguably Australia's first commercial Internet Service Provider, although the court did not consider whether the ISP was in any way responsible for carriage of the allededly offending message.

Dr Rindos (1947-1997) was awarded $40,000 in damages from Hardwick, although Rindos died while Mr Hardwick was preparing his appeal and the matter lapsed.

External links

• the facts of the matter
• the "Rindos / UWA Case" Site
• Hardwick's post
• RINDOS -v- HARDWICK - judgement by the Supreme Court of Western Australia