In Norway Personopplysningsloven ยง7 gives explicit exemptions to
artistic, journalistic and literary work. Vandalism is no such thing but
the project as such is a journalistic and literary work. When someone
vandalize we claim it is just piggybacking on the normal use of the site
and is "published". If there is no publishing the full law apply.
We had a previous correspondence with Datatilsynet where they claimed
IP-addresses to be personal information. I don't think they have changed
on that matter. WMF may choose to dismiss the law altogether, but I'm
not sure Norwegian users can do the same thing.
I doubt seriously that logging of IP-addresses is a crucial element of
the extension, its simply nice to have for later retrieval and actions.
Given how logging is implemented in Mediawiki it is probably easier to
keep the IP-addresses than removing them.
I don't think anything is going to change, so it is as a lost case.
John
I asked this in the last e-mail, but I'll make it
the primary point of this
one - do you have specific references that led to your current understanding
of the problem? Has the distinction you describe in the collection of
information been litigated somewhere else, or the subject of a law in any
jurisdiction? As it stands, the logging is a crucial element of the filter.
It's probably possible to obscure IP data from the log, but I don't see why
that would be necessary at this point.
Nathan
On Wed, Mar 25, 2009 at 11:35 AM, John at Darkstar <vacuum(a)jeb.no> wrote:
It is not refusing to accept some kind of edit
that creates the problem,
it is the logging of the action because you then collect information
about the users. Preventing the vandalism instead of reacting to it
shifts the actions from a public context to a private context. By
avoiding collecting such information and adhering to "administration of
the system" most of the problem simply goes away. Its not about using or
not using the extension, its about limiting the logging so that no one
can gain access to any data to make later actions against the users (ie.
the vandals).
WMF may choose to log the information anyhow, like it may choose to not
respect copyright laws in some countries. I don't think that is very
wise, but I can only say what I believe is right.
John
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