Christopher Mahan stated for the record:
--- Tony Sidaway minorityreport@bluebottle.com wrote:
I suggest that the existing procedures are adequate for this. If someone seems to be trying it on then we can tell them to change their username because misleading or disruptive usernames are not allowed. If they say that is their real name we block them anyway. No appeals.
But what if it is their real name anyway? What if they fax a copy of their driver's license and birth certificate to Jimbo and it read " Jeremy Irons" or "Frank Zappa" or "Christina Applegate". What then? Do we say, sorry buddy, we know you've been a contributor for years, and you're a swell guy, but you gotta change your anme because some hollywood actor has more rights that you?
I say if you can prove your identity, it's first come first served.
(check out nissan.com. The guy, Uzi Nissan, registered nissan.com in 1995, to support his business, nissan computer corporation. Nissan Motors Corporation of Japan has been suing the living daylights out of him for 5 years (always denied, rejected, by US courts.))
I brought this up literally years ago, when the same "zero tolerance" policy was being debated for "offensive" names. The loudest-shouting conclusion (I won't say "consensus") was that it didn't matter what your real name was -- no matter how how many government-issued identification documents you present or long ago your parents gave it to you, if a handful of Wikipedians claim to find it offensive, you're not allowed to use it. The specific example I used was my colleague Moamar Qazafi. I was told most emphatically that because his parents made the mistake of giving him a name that the parents of the Libyan dictator also chose, he would not be allowed to edit Wikipedia under his real name.
-- Sean Barrett | Just the place for a Snark! I have said it twice: sean@epoptic.com | That alone should encourage the crew. | Just the place for a Snark! I have said it thrice: | What I tell you three times is true.