Elisabeth Bauer schrieb:

Hello,

Some people on the German wikipedia noticed that http://www.wikipedia.de points no longer to de.wikipedia.org but to a completely different site which has a frappant similarity to a link farm.

What did happen here? Most people, reading about wikipedia in the newspapers, first try the .de-adress. This could seriously damage our reputation.

Indeed, this is really strange. Jimbo, how could this happen?

Arne Klempert from the German Wp works as provider and will try to get the domain back in an unbureaucratic way. If this doesn't work we'll need to get a lawyer who writes a dissuasion for us. It was explained to me that we need a "dispute entry" at the German DENIC, so nobody can grab the domain when it is set free again (besides us, of course). More information in German: http://www.denic.de/doc/recht/faq/ansprueche.html#a0005

The form that must be filled out and sent to Denic: http://www.denic.de/doc/recht/formulare/einrichtungdispute.pdf

Jimbo, I can do this if you want me to, and I can also go to a lawyer and authorise him to send a dissuasion if necessary, but I need a procuration/power of authority/whatever it's called to do this.

One also has to enclose a document which shows that we have a right to own wikipedia.de. I hope a foundation certificate and some German newspaper articles will be sufficient.

My address: Kurt Jansson Wiener Str. 7 10999 Berlin Germany

(You can additionally send me a scan by e-mail, so I don't have to wait for the letter.)

Kurt