Topics that are relevant to the PAR-L discussion group pertain to "policy, action, and research on issues of concern to women in Canada". This is intentionally fairly broad in scope to permit and facilitate an open arena for feminist activists, scholars, and researchers to come together, communicate, share, and disseminate information in a supportive environment.

Messages about international topics are accepted when they also concern Canadian women or when they are calls for action, calls for papers and conference announcements. Messages can be posted in English or French.

Relevant postings to PAR-L may include:

• discussions and analyses of current events;
• announcements of upcoming women's events or actions;
• descriptions of new women's books and other relevant publications;
• calls for papers and upcoming feminist or women's conferences;
• responses to government, business, or university decisions affecting women;
• job descriptions that are specifically oriented towards women; and
• calls for action that are relevant within Canada and beyond, such as petitions, provided they have been checked for validity.

There are some materials that will not be accepted for posting to the PAR-L discussion group. These include:

• messages which contain verbal attacks as well as offensive language or content (homophobic, antifeminist, etc.);
• material that does not directly pertain to women;
• general job opening messages;
• jokes of any kind;
• messages about computer viruses and related hoaxes;
• personal messages;
• copyrighted material (Please do not forward material from newspapers or magazines without attaining or verifying copyright permission); and
• messages containing attachments of any sort.

If in doubt, please contact the moderators at PAR-L-MODERATORS@unb.ca. All messages are reviewed prior to posting to the list to ensure that they follow the parameters of the PAR-L discussion group. Rejected messages will be sent back to the subscriber with comments indicating why they were not accepted.

It is the policy for PAR-L to NOT post any messages from subscribers about computer viruses to the discussion group.

Every day, e-mails are sent around the world calling attention to new and harmful viruses. These are called virus warning messages. Circulating information about viruses may seem like a helpful, preventative choice, but often it is not. That e-mail that has been sent to you about a new, scary virus is usually false information, called a VIRUS HOAX MESSAGE. These messages play to our fears about the Internet, and our lack of knowledge about viruses.

If you receive a virus warning message, follow the suggested advice below, and you will be able to determine if the virus warning message is genuine.

1. Check with a virus hoax site to see if they have your virus warning listed as a hoax.
Virus Bulletin Hoax home page:
http://www.virusbtn.com/Hoax/

2. Check with a virus site to see if they have this virus listed as legitimate.
McAfee Virus Information Library (they also list virus hoaxes):
http://vil.mcafee.com

3. Chances are, you have discovered your virus warning message is a virus hoax message! In fact, almost ALL of these types of messages are false. Please do NOT circulate these types of messages under any circumstances, as it increases misinformation on-line.

4. If you have been able to identify that your virus message is a true, valid message, then and only then should you re-post it to your address list.

Since almost all of virus warning messages are false information, our policy at PAR-L is to not post ANY messages from subscribers warning about computer viruses. This is general policy for most listserv discussion groups.

The PAR-L policy on copyrighted materials is to NOT post any material that breaks Canadian and international copyright acts and laws to the discussion group. But how can you know if the material you have found on the Internet is copyright protected before it is sent to PAR-L?

In general, all materials found on the Internet are protected by various international copyright acts. The Internet is part of the public domain though, and many authors will publish their material on the Internet with the belief that others will freely copy and circulate the material. So it may be difficult to establish what constitutes copyright violation.

Please check first for a copyright statement on the web site. If the web site gives explicit permission to repost the material in part or full, you are free to send the material to PAR-L. If the web page has a button at the bottom saying "send this article to a friend", copying the article to PAR-L is not an infringement.

Otherwise, unless there is some indication of permission to recopy on the site, copying and posting material from any web site IS copyright fringement. For example, commercial web sites (.com) are ALWAYS copyright protected, unless otherwise indicated. However, it would be permissible to post a brief description of the material and a link to the site where the information may be found. If there is no copyright statement, you could also attain author permission before sending the material to PAR-L.

It is up to the subscriber to ensure that the materials that they post to PAR-L do not violate copyright acts and laws.

Because PAR-L is dedicated to policy, action, and research on policy issues of interest to women in Canada, we welcome messages requesting research assistance or advice on topics relevant to our mandate. However, the list should be used only as a last resort, when other sources of information such as standard library and Web searches have been tried first.

PAR-L will gladly post requests for research assistance or advice by members only when the question pertains to women and the overall PAR-L objectives, and when it is specific. You should indicate your research topic or question, and also what the research is for, such as a student thesis or a government grant. You should also outline briefly what your literature review has turned up and the type of additional information you are looking for. We will not post blanket requests, for example about the oppression of women in general. If you do make use of PAR-L members’ expertise, we ask that you post to the list a summary and/or bibliographic compilation of the replies/suggestions that you received in response to your request. That way we all benefit.

Requests for research participants should state the institution or organisation that is responsible for the research, the names of the principal investigators, the nature and scope of the research, and it should address any research ethics issues.

PAR-L will only post e-mail petitions that have been checked for validation, include the original author's contact information, and have a stated cut-off date.

One of PAR-L's goals is to encourage and increase the use of the Internet for political activism. Using e-mail to send out information and petitions may *seem* like an easy way to be activist on the Internet. However, this poses many problems.

E-mail petitions rapidly go out of date given the speed of the Internet. It is also difficult to ascertain whether an e-mail petition is valid, and being reproduced as the author had intended. Anyone can receive an e-mail petition, and edit it to their own purpose.

For these reasons, PAR-L will only post messages that have been checked with the original author for verification of authenticity by the subscriber to PAR-L. Please include contact information (web site or e-mail address), and indicate at what date this petition is no longer valid.