Fred Bauder wrote:
Ok, that relates to an actual case we had in arbitration, Irismeister, who I understand is a Romanian practitioner with a Iridology practice in Paris. Should he sue, in a Paris court, he would presumably win, and with a French affiliate have someone he could get his "legal" hands on. How exposed are we? If he requested removal of all his contributions, could we easily comply technically? That is, do we have software which would easily allow removal of all of someone's edits?
Disclaimer: I am not a lawyer.
The right of withdrawal (CPI L121-4) can only be exerced if the author indemnifies the publisher for the losses incurred by this withdrawal, as very clearly stated in the law. My understanding is that Irismeister would have to refund us the developer or employee time needed to sort out his contributions...
Furthermore, Wikipedia is clearly a "collaborative work" (CPI L113-2). In that circumstance, the rights may only be exerced by common agreement of the authors, and if there is disagreement, a court would have to step in. To me his means Irismeister would have to get a court to decide that he can exerce his right of withdrawal from this common work.
Thus my analysis is that: - it would cost him an arm and a leg - the court could very likely just rule that he cannot ask for withdrawal from this collaborative work.
-- DM