On Wed, 17 Jul 2002, Jimmy Wales wrote:
But other than direct legal action, there are other serious risks of taking too lax an attitude about copyright violations.
Murder and theft are illegal, and there is something called "citizen's arrest", but other than that, police work is left to the police, and a citizen cannot sentence his neighbors to fines or confinement. This is your country, Jimmy, you be the law. Are we wikipedians citizens or policemen? Are sysops policemen? If I suspect that another user is breaking the law, should I report that to you or should I take action against the abuser? Speaking for myself, I have no interest whatsoever to play the role of a police.
When I was new to Wikipedia, I remember it was very hard to understand who was in charge, giving orders, and who was just giving their personal opinion. If somebody tells me I "shouldn't" do this or that, I like to know the authority of that statement.