On 10/5/06, Anthony <wikilegal(a)inbox.org>
wrote:
On 10/5/06, Jimmy Wales <jwales(a)wikia.com>
wrote:
No, actually, they are not free to do that, and I
consider it deeply
unethical if they do. They are free to pay someone to write whatever
they like, and put it on their own website, and release it under the GNU
FDL. They are not free to edit Wikipedia for pay.
So is it unethical for the person who wins Danny's contest to accept
the award payment?
Methinks there's a slight difference between being paid by a neutral
third party to write an article and being paid by an interested party
to write an article.
In the one, the focus is on promoting article quality and Wikipedia;
in the other, the focus is on promoting a company.
Big, big difference.
I absolutely agree, and that's why I think what should matter is the
resulting article, and not whether or not someone was paid to write
it.
Jimbo seemed to be going further than that, though. He certainly
implied that editing Wikipedia for pay is per se a bad idea.
Anthony