"Alex R." <alex756@nyc.rr.com> wrote:

> We do have a collective responsibility however it may be expressed
legally.
> We are working toward, and perhaps have now, established a non-profit
> corporation. As a corporation the usual rules apply and the corporation is
> responible with auxilliary responsibility with individuals who may have
> commited a particular transgression.

I disagree with this completely. Jimbo has started a non-profit corporation
to aid in the financial stability of Wikipedia so it survives. We are not
that corporation and we will probably only participate in that corporation
by donating to it. The corporation is in no way responsible for the
contributions of members. This is outragously wrong to think that someone
is absolved of personal responsiblity by posting something to an
OSP as user: JamesDay points out that Wikipedia is. It is the poster who
always has and always will be responsible no matter how much the volunteers
try to protect the good name of Wikipedia, fundamentally it is the duty
of contributors to make sure that their work is not in violation of any
laws.

They are doing the contributing. How can we be responsible for the
defamation done by some third person, we may not even know that it
has gone on until long after it happened?
----

Which "laws" Alex? You forget to preface the term with "US" -- which as I understand it, are not the only laws in the world. It may be that the US sometime in the future might cease to be the best home for the Wikimedia foundation... (Forgetting for while about that anarchist-Freenet last-resort option. :-) That USLaw might become incompatible with GFDL, and therefore the Wikipedia might (given some trends) become incompatible with the US. Therefore-- the Wikimedia ought by rights

But the important thing is that "its" here and we can actively contribute to it -- it always will be here, regardless of what name or "foundation" "its" under.

"My question, to this esteemed Wiki community, is this: Do you think that a Wiki could successfully generate a useful encyclopedia?" -- JimboWales

"Yes, but in the end it wouldn't be an encyclopedia. It would be a wiki." --WardCunningham