Strong-worded, but I have to say that I gotta agree. Fred's literally right on the money. There's a lot on things that I found totally un-wikipedian about Erik's proposal, and many others have already pointed those things out, so I don't need to <AOL> them. (Suffice to say that I strongly oppose it in its present form.) Considering the below legal issue however is a sine qua non: Don't heed Fred's warning and your proposal has the potential to--excuse my language--royally shaft the entire Wikimedia Foundation and ALL its projects.
-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]] www.ropersonline.com
On 12 Oct 2004, at 04:34, Fred Bauder wrote:
Yeh, you folks are just not listening. You need to check into what even a simple nuisance action against you would cost. God forbid, what the consequences would be if there was a substantial award against you.
At a bare minimum, in order that all the work we have done doesn't end up in the ownership of a plaintiff, the Wikinews project needs to be a separate corporation.
We are not a little hole in the corner outfit no one heard of anymore. We are getting up there with the New York Times and CBS News who budget millons for legal defense. Where is that kind of money going to come from?
Fred
From: Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com Reply-To: Andrew Lih andrew.lih@gmail.com, Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@wikimedia.org Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:23:44 +0800 To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List foundation-l@wikimedia.org Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Re: Formal request: Wikinews project
This endeavour, while sharing Wikimedia's goals of openness, inclusion and free content is the most ambitious project yet, because it becomes primary source journalism. And with this, comes the baggage of having to deal with libel and slander in ways Wikipedia does not, because WP is one level of indirection away from accountable sources. Legal counsel for any primary source reporting would be a necessity.
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