On 08.05.2010 17:48, Mike Godwin wrote:
I think it's also worth remembering that when an
individual like Jimmy is
given extraordinary cross-project powers to use in extraordinary
circumstances, this more or less guarantees that any use of those powers
will be controversial. (If they were uncontroversial, nobody would need
them, since consensus processes would fix all problems quickly and
effectively.) But rather than focus on whether your disagreement with the
particulars of what Jimmy did means that Jimmy's powers should be removed,
you should choose instead, I believe, to use this abrupt intervention as an
opportunity to discuss whether Commons policy and its implementation can be
improved in a way that brings it more into line with the Wikimedia projects'
mission. Once this discussion happens, it would not surprise me if the
result turned out to be that some of the material deleted by Jimmy will be
restored by the community -- probably with Jimmy's approval in many cases.
I agree most of all with this point.
I don't understand this dissatisfaction generated by Jimbo's decision.
Commons is so careful with the copyright's violation and some decisions
of Commons community has been perceived to be excessively "severe" to
other communities, but in other ways Commons seems to be so unconnected
with other kind of "legal" problems that I personally have thought to be
in mistaken.
In Italy, for example, the explicit publication of pornographic content
in a public web sites is not allowed and any deficiency is treated *with
"criminal" law*.
The deleted images and the free access for children has been a strange
situation until now with legal involvement in a lot of countries.
The images have had neither a disclaimer or a warning concerning the
children access and the feeling given to the users has been that of the
indifference to the problem.
I have never understood why the Commons community has not treated this
matter so careful than the copyright's violation and the reaction of the
community to Jimbo can only confirm me the feeling of "indifference".
Now I see that Jimbo has managed the problem with urgency and asked to
the community to fix the problem at last.
I cannot see any other problem.
Ilario