Lee Daniel Crocker wrote:
Indeed, I would consider it heroic to violate local laws to post useful information on Wikipedia, such as first-hand descriptions of the acts of despotic governments, or information about how to defeat net access restrictions.
I agree. I still do not recommend that people do it, out of concern for their personal wellbeing. In some countries, it could potentially be very dangerous, and for that reason, I say that each person should follow their own conscience and do what they can.
A more tricky issue is postings that are legal elsewhere but not legal in California, such as the posting of information that is public domain in places whose legislature isn't owned by Disney. We probably have to supress such information, which is a shame.
Yes, I agree that we probably do, and that it is a shame in some cases. But usually the fact that we're doing an encyclopedia means that we aren't all that interested in posting such information, except in a context that's a pretty easy slam-dunk fair use, anyway.
Fortunately, by and large, the United States is still the most free-speech friendly nation. So it's only in some rare cases that U.S. law might be more strict than laws elsewhere.
One striking example would be information about how to 'crack' the DVD encryption software. Such information is encyclopedic, but it is also potentially illegal to post in the U.S.
--Jimbo