Well, to Steven's point that you might need a jurisdiction where corporate officers and employees aren't subject to extradition... I believe Germany does in fact have an extradition treaty with the United States.
So far the criteria I'm hearing from the comments here:
1) Politically stable 2) Liberal political environment 3) Strong protections against government interference in relevant operations 4) Section 230-like protection against liability for user content 5) No natural disasters like fires, floods, hurricanes, volcanoes, etc. 6) Strong technological sophistication - preferably a robust technology industry that can supply local talent for WMF needs 7) Protections in the law for data privacy 8) Availability of renewable energy sources and other resources that allow for operation of the WMF with a low climate impact 9) Tax exemption or beneficial tax structure for receiving international fundings by donation 10) Clear and reliable regulatory framework for a charitable organization 11) Safe - low crime, low-risk of violence for WMF stakeholders and community 12) Free from risk of extradition to the U.S. or other jurisdictions where criminal or civil law might be used against WMF officers or employees
I would guess the list of countries that meet all of these criteria might be short. Norway might hit most of these except the last.
On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 2:44 PM Michael Peel email@mikepeel.net wrote:
… hence the existence of Wikimedia chapters? I suspect at least WMDE could take this on if it becomes necessary, although other chapters aren’t as technologically developed as I’d have liked to have seen.
Thanks, Mike
On 30 Sep 2020, at 19:35, Steven Walling steven.walling@gmail.com
wrote:
SJ hinted at a related problem which is that we'd also need a backup organizational structure to run things operationally and legally. If the
US
becomes so politically unstable that hosting Wikimedia data is under
threat
there, just moving the data would not be enough. You'd also have to
include
a contingency plan that foresaw the need to legally operate the
Foundation
(or an equivalent organization anyway) under a different jurisdiction with corporate officers not subject to US law or extradition. If the servers are hosted in the EU but the legally controlling body and its employees are within the US, you could still see them legally forced to comply with an order, just like companies are forced to do so in other countries with censorious regimes today.
On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 8:59 AM Samuel Klein meta.sj@gmail.com wrote:
We should have technical partners in multiple other jurisdictions that could help in a crisis, and load bearing infrastructure in at least one
of
them, and a plan for how and when to switch. (The walkthrough of what
would
be needed for a smooth transfer send most important, and useful for
general
reliability planning)
We should also fully support and realize Wikimedia-on-ipfs, similar to
what
the internet archive had been doing. (Santhosh has some excellent ideas there)
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Wed., Sep. 30, 2020, 5:35 a.m. Dan Garry (Deskana), <
djgwiki@gmail.com>
wrote:
On Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 09:49, Erik Moeller eloquence@gmail.com
wrote:
I hope that some preliminary contingency plans exist or are being developed, and I'm sure that the movement-wide debate will widen if the US continues its downward slide into authoritarianism.
I agree with Erik. Even under the Obama administration, there were
threats
to the existence of the movement, such as SOPA [1] which lead to a
blackout
[2]. One can extrapolate from current events that these threats could
well
get larger and more frequent, rather than smaller and less frequent,
should
someone in the US Government decide to focus their attention on
attacking
Wikipedia and free knowledge. It would be prudent to create a
contingency
plan which includes an exploration of other options for a location of operation for the Wikimedia Foundation and/or its servers, with their advantages and disadvantages. I personally wouldn't necessarily
advocate
for making the plan public; that would be ideal, but I'd be comforted merely to know it exists.
On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 23:36, Joseph Seddon josephseddon@gmail.com wrote:
I believe options are going to be explored for sustainability but
right
now
legally speaking the US is the best jurisdiction for hosting us now
and
the
foreseeable future.
I agree with this too. For now, the United States remains the best
place
for the organisation to operate out of, and a move should not be
actively
considered.
Dan
[2]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA#Wikimedia_commu...
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