On Dec 11, 2007 2:59 PM, jayjg
<jayjg99(a)gmail.com> wrote:
So, what do you to in the cases where it's
not serious enough to
involved the police? Say, for example, people start investigating your
edits, discover who you are, and call your elderly father, or an old
girlfriend, or old work colleagues, or your boss. Perhaps they manage
to get some scurrilous and damaging bit of invented nonsense published
on slashdot or some sensationalist online rag. If the harasser doesn't
do anything overtly threatening, then the police won't get involved.
How can Wikipedia respond?
As it happens, Kelly Martin outlines exactly how one does this (and
otherwise successfully create an anti-stalking policy environment) in
a blog post that went up in the last couple hours.
Relevant excerpt:
"Had the Foundation formally notified a stalker that he or she was
denied permission to access Wikipedia, the Foundation could then press
charges for computer trespass against the stalker when he or she
subsequently accessed the site. Such charges would give the
authorities leverage to put the perp away; proving that case is far
easier than proving the much harder stalking or harassment case --
especially when the victim refuses to personally identify himself or
herself to authorities."
(The rest of the post is definitely worth reading. It can be found at
http://nonbovine-ruminations.blogspot.com/2007/12/wikipedia-al-qaeda.html
It is, of course, in Ms. Martin's inimitable style; but she's not
wrong on this.)
Well, I'm not generally a fan of Kelly but this makes an excellent point. My
only concern is that having the Foundation get that involved could intertwine
the Foundation with the individual projects more than we want. The Foundation
is more important than any one editor and we must make sure that it is not
liable. That said, this might work. Has anyone discussed it with Foundation
higher ups.