[Foundation-l] Commons Usurp issue

[Robert Rohde]

On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 7:28 PM, Andrew Whitworth <wknight8111 at gmail.com>
wrote:

> On Tue, Jun 3, 2008 at 10:22 PM, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
> > 2008/6/4 George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com>:
> >> If an usurped account owner complains, along these lines, our
> >> counterargument is "We still list (your account / identity) in the
> >> article history, though we've changed the displayed text string for
> >> it.  That's all we do for anyone, ever."
> >
> > Nice try but the GFDL isn't interested in account / identities just
> > the text string.
>
> The GFDL is concerned with authors, not their arbitrarily chosen
> pseudonyms. So long as the invariant list of authors is properly
> attributed, it does not matter what nickname they use to sign into the
> website.
>
How can you possibly properly attribute the authors' without using their
self-determined names?

I agree with Geni that the natural interpretation of "List ... as authors,
one or more persons or
entities responsible for authorship..." is to report them in the form
orginally declared by the author.  Renaming them without their permission
strikes me as neither legal nor ethical.

-Robert Rohde