Mike Godwin wrote:
Then I think the obvious next question is, how much money (in dollars or Euros) should we be willing to allocate every year to the defense of cases we believe we will likely win? Or, to put it another way, how much of our budget (in percentages) should we be willing to allocate every year to the defense of cases we believe we will win?
I'm going to ignore a huge amount of the prior discussion because I think this is a key issue that Mike could expand on.
Lawsuits are expensive and some litigious people are well aware how to game the system in an effort to wear down your warchest. Wikimedia - and Wikipedia in particular - is a target that many people would love to see disqualified from claiming the protections they do under ISP status. If you sit back and think about the discussions that have been followable over the past few days/weeks then there are little technical details like peering arrangements which help solidify that position.
Personally, I don't have any doubt it should actually be a line item on the detailed budget... But the one that is published should roll it up into other legal advice and consulting costs to conceal the size of the warchest.
On the other hand, I wonder that if the Foundation goes beyond fighting cases to retain their ISP status and protect the rights they extend under privacy policy then they will lose the former.
In the end it all comes down to the individuals who write, support, and possibly protect material that becomes contentious. I am sure that Mike would likely off the record suggest options to discuss with a lawyer and, depending on his informal advice and understanding of the situation, bring it up with ex-colleagues at the EFF.
Suing someone who has breached the terms under which Wikimedia content is made available is entirely a different matter.
Forgive me if some of this is retreading old ground, but I've over 50 messages for this list since yesterday. Can we have a rerun (or a January run) of the top poster stats? I was 2nd last time and felt embarrassed despite having thought most of what I wrote was close to the topic in question.
Brian McNeil