Very good question. I like the idea of having a rallying point for
incremental improvement.
This is one of the goals of the policy site <https://policy.wikimedia.org/>.
The legal principles/acts/precedents/rights that underpin our work is a
very broad question. We distill this down on the policy site into five
general areas, where we describe each topic with a few principles in detail
(the section on intermediary liability
<https://policy.wikimedia.org/policy-landing/liability/> briefly covers
Section 230) and we provide further information in blog posts and the
mailing list here. The rules on intermediary liability are
extremely important, have wide variation around the world, and (in my
opinion) are not as clearly established as free culture principles for
copyright (as one example). These are some of the reasons we're working
with Yale Law School on their new initiative on intermediaries and
information
<https://law.yale.edu/yls-today/news/yls-and-wikimedia-foundation-create-new-initiative-intermediaries-and-information>.
As some background, you may also like the Standford Center for Internet and
Society's world intermediary liability map
<http://cyberlaw.stanford.edu/our-work/projects/world-intermediary-liability-map-wilmap>
.
It's difficult to make a concrete list of minimum laws and regulations
though—this kind of legal analysis always involves some trade-offs, and
will affect users, projects, content, and the organization in different
ways. Enumerating essential parts of the law is a little like asking Carl
Sagan to bake an apple pie from scratch. That's why we focus on high-level
principles in the policy site.
Best,
Stephen
On Tue, Nov 14, 2017 at 2:11 PM, Liam Wyatt <liamwyatt(a)gmail.com> wrote:
Not wishing to distract from the SESTA work you’re
doing, but I’ve got a
somewhat tangential question:
Is there, or could wmf-legal create, a list of the “necessary” legal
principles/acts/precedents/rights that underpin why the WMF can operate
in the USA and not in any other country?
I hear of certain things a lot: like Fair Use, Safe Harbours, Freedom of
Speech rights... but I’ve never heard of “section 230 of the communications
decency act” despite the fact that “the Wikipedia we know today simply
would not exist without [it].”
It would be useful to have a list (dare I say on Meta?) that enumerates
these *crucial* things in USA Law that protect Wikimedia/pedia/WMF.
The logical extension is to then compare with other jurisdictions to see
what are the missing elements in each place which, if “fixed”, could mean
that country could potentially be a legal home for the WMF. Best-case
scenario the digital-right community of xyz-country use our “list of
necessary laws for hosting Wikipedia” as a rallying-point to lobby their
parliament to make some incremental improvement.
-Liam
On Tue, 14 Nov 2017 at 19:13, Leighanna Mixter <lmixter(a)wikimedia.org>
wrote:
Hi everyone,
In September
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/publicpolicy/2017-September/001683.html>,
we wrote to you about SESTA, a bill which would weaken internet platforms’
intermediary liability protections under Section 230 of the Communications
Decency Act. The Wikimedia Foundation favors safe harbor rules
<https://policy.wikimedia.org/policy-landing/liability/> like Section
230, since they allow website hosts to act neutrally and avoid interfering
with community governance. For that reason, we submitted a letter in
support of the current legal framework
<https://lists.wikimedia.org/pipermail/publicpolicy/2017-September/001691.html>
to the Senate Commerce Committee. In October, in a House Judiciary
Committee Hearing, Chris Cox gave a great summary of the importance of
Section 230 <https://youtu.be/DyxD260Wz2Y?t=36m23s> for Wikipedia and
similar projects.
Since then, a Manager’s Amendment to SESTA was released. The revised
version of the bill makes some important changes over the original, but
still makes troubling amendments to the protections granted by Section 230.
The Senate Commerce Committee approved the Manager’s Amendment last
Wednesday, and SESTA will now likely proceed to a full Senate vote at some
point. Senator Wyden, one of the original authors of Section 230, has put
a hold
<https://www.wyden.senate.gov/news/press-releases/wyden-issues-warning-about-sesta>
on SESTA, which means there is a pause before the next vote.
Last week, we published a blog post on Medium
<https://medium.com/@Wikimedia/three-principles-in-cda-230-that-make-wikipedia-possible-c0fb0006a932>
(and on our blog
<https://blog.wikimedia.org/2017/11/09/cda-230-principles-wikipedia/>),
highlighting the importance of Section 230 for Wikipedia's growth, and some
core principles that lawmakers should keep in mind as they evaluate SESTA
and similar bills. Section 230 has encouraged good-faith content
moderation, under a single federal standard, and protected not only large
websites, but also small startups and nonprofits. Congress should avoid
disrupting the balance that has made projects like Wikipedia possible.
If you want to follow SESTA and Section 230 developments more closely, I
recommend Eric Goldman's Technology & Marketing Law Blog
<http://blog.ericgoldman.org/>. They are providing good quick legal
analysis with each step for the bill.
Best,
Leighanna & Stephen
--
Leighanna Mixter
Technology Law and Policy Fellow
Wikimedia Foundation
1 Montgomery Street, Suite 1600
San Francisco, CA 94104
lmixter(a)wikimedia.org
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