On 17/10/2007, Phil Sandifer Snowspinner@gmail.com wrote:
* Legal support to someone frivolously sued for legitimate and beneficial on-Wikipedia activity.It has always been my assumption (though an untested one) that the Foundation would step in on this level.
Mmm, though there might be legal issues with actually saying upfront we intend to - I don't know what Florida (or California, or federal, or whatever) charity laws are like with regards to using funds for not-strictly-relevant purposes like paying your volunteers legal bills. I suspect they're looser than they are over here, but even loose can still be stifling.
The point here being that we have a lot to lose by making a fund such as this.
Legal issues aside, having the Foundation in any way required (or strongly expected) to step in - by having such a dedicated fund or by any other means - leaves us open to the potential for some very unfortunate overreaction. It also leaves us open to the potential for being gamed, or for being placed in a no-win situation - imagine the perfectly plausible situation where the user being harassed turns out to be someone the Foundation, or most of the community, would balk at standing next to at a press conference.
And Lord help the day we get people whining "We collected all this money, we ought to use it, and ---- still hasn't shut up..."
I like the idea; I like that the community is making a tangible statement of its willingness to support one another by encouraging practical activity outside of its own sphere. But I think that, for now, statements are all that are required.
Send the money when someone *has* the problem and takes action; I think you'll get a good and tangible response to a specific call, and you'll avoid having to have a fuss over whether or not the money "ought to be released for this case", etc.
But actually having an account with the money sitting in it? I think that's more of a liability than a benefit, all things considered.