A newsgroup, is essentially a virtual 'chat' forum in an eclectic international medium and as such, it would be impossible to expect an ISP to vet every article complained about. ISPs are constantly battling to make the public aware of the sheer scale of the information exchanged across the Internet, and the impossibility of monitoring items posted. Demon argues further that the message in question did not come from the ISP's server, but actually originated from overseas and from a user that was not even a subscriber to the newsgroup. They said that the action is wrong for the simple reason that it is not technically possible for an ISP to monitor all the traffic flowing across the Internet, to and from the Usenet discussion groups. Industry Minister Michael Wills to request an urgent meeting to state its case.
Legal opinion is divided on the case.
If you notify the person or ISP that there is defamatory material on the Usenet, then the ISP should review the matter or at least take appropriate action. Speaking to Newsbyte News Network, Kelman said Demon should have said they were looking into the matter rather than refusing to take any action at all. There is a need to balance things between reasonable action and censorship, but the ISP needed to develop a procedure to handle such cases. The Demon Internet case is only the latest of 10 libel suits filed by Godfrey. UK court officials haven't even learned to program their video recorders yet.