At 00:46 02/04/2012, John Erling Blad wrote:

US users can use archive.org, but foreigners might get into troubles. Remember that wikipedia/-data isn't US only. Both (?) Archive.org and webcitation removes conten on request, it shall be some tricks to automate it for catalogues and sites. Check it out.

Another issue is to be considered in that line of thinking : copyrights protection by new/coming laws that permit lawyers to block a site preventively (eg. Cyberdefense proposition in the USA). Wikidata should permit a permanent legal operational to attend to a lawyer's demand in one country without blocking users from other countries. This would mean modularity, i.e. a conflict with the concept of a central source.

Another issue is that "truth is not always good to say". In lingual versions, not telling a full truth is acceptable. Not for a central reference system like Wikidata. With probable retaliations against its credibility.

I will pick a well known example. Many interests (including Govs) wish to hide people the way the DNS is really designed. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Domain_Name_System does not hide that the DNS uses CLASSes and it correctly states that "Each class is an independent name space with potentially different delegations of DNS zones". But it only states: "The CLASS of a record is set to IN (for Internet) for common DNS records involving Internet hostnames, servers, or IP addresses. In addition, the classes Chaos (CH) and Hesiod (HS) exist."

This actually hides Wikipedia's readers that the DNS actually counts 65,536 CLASSes, and that a CLASS actually means a fully independent Root file, meaning that the Internet could run perfectly well with 65,536 ICANN/NTIA similar set-ups. And incidentally without root file systems. This is not something that Wikidata acting as a world unique source on the DNS could hide. The only response of those who want a status quo in the people's beliefs about the DNS, would be to fight the credibility of Wikidata. In spite of decades old URLs to the DNS RFCs.

Such campaign would multiply with all the truths which are not good to say and that Wikidata will have to collect. We should technically be prepared to opposes such campaigns in having a very easy system to use in order to confirm our sources : the actual words of the concerned texts, not only the URL to a document containing them.

jfc