On 8/25/07, Ray Saintonge saintonge@telus.net wrote:
Ok, I don't know about the legal definitions, but by the everyday meaning of the word, the WMF is the publisher. They are the one that makes the content available to the public, that's what the word means.
Perhaps then it would be good to read what distinction you make between a publisher and an ISP. I think that it is a distinction that would be crucial in any legal dispute.
Precisely, Ray. The question is, does a webhost like Geocities "publish" content, or just make it available through their infrastructure, while the user who authors the content is considered the publisher? The WMF position is that it is a webhost, and editors are publishers.
By the way, why are we talking about lay, as opposed to legal definitions? Are we discussing human readability? AFAICT, the earlier discussion was centring on the GFDL, a legal document. The term "publisher" has a special meaning in law.
Johnleemk