Daniel R. Tobias wrote:
On 30 May 2007 at 21:34:50 -0700, William Pietri
<william(a)scissor.com> wrote:
For example, in your hypothetical case of a
person maliciously posting
links to a site with libel elsewhere on it, I'm not seeing as banning
talk-page links to the whole site as particularly effective. Instead,
I'd rather we got together as a community and set up a legal fund for a
libel suit. I feel like banning links to some kook's site is just
rewarding their desire to cause trouble, and doesn't hurt them in any
way that matters. A well-funded lawsuit, on the other hand is plain
scary. Speaking of which, I'm in for $500 if somebody makes your
hypothetical case real.
Would that sort of activity violate [[WP:NLT]]?
Good question! I hadn't thought of that.
My first thought is no, as if person A libels person B off Wikipedia and
person B then sues person A, there's no threat made and, most
importantly, no chilling effect for editing Wikipedia articles. Some
third party could write a reasonable and neutral noticeboard or signpost
article, with links to appropriate backing info and links to the legal
fund(s) involved. I trust the community to make good choices with the
full information.
What I think would violate NLT would be person B posting a lot on
Wikipedia about how they *might* sue person A for off-Wiki activity.
That's my first take, anyway, but you've now got me wondering what
exploits for a system like that would be. I'll chew on it more, and if
you find any holes, let me know. But hopefully, we'll never need it.
William