§  97.219   Message forwarding system.

   (a) Any amateur station may participate in a message forwarding system,
   subject to the privileges of the class of operator license held.

   (b) For stations participating in a message forwarding system, the
   control operator of the station originating a message is primarily
   accountable for any violation of the rules in this part contained in
   the message.

   (c) Except as noted in (d) of this section, for stations participating
   in a message forwarding system, the control operators of forwarding
   stations that retransmit inadvertently communications that violate the
   rules in this part are not accountable for the violative
   communications. They are, however, responsible for discontinuing such
   communications once they become aware of their presence.

   (d) For stations participating in a message forwarding system, the
   control operator of the first forwarding station must:

   (1) Authenticate the identity of the station from which it accepts
   communications on behalf of the system; or

   (2) Accept accountability for any violation of the rules in this part
   contained in messages it retransmits to the system.

   [ 59 FR 18975 , Apr. 21, 1994]