[Foundation-l] COPPA

[Jeff V. Merkey]

Anthony wrote:

>On 9/8/06, geni <geniice at gmail.com> wrote:
>  
>
>>On 9/8/06, Kelly Martin <kelly.lynn.martin at gmail.com> wrote:
>>    
>>
>>>The Wikimedia Foundation is exempt from COPPA due to its status as a
>>>non-profit organization not engaged in commerce.
>>>      
>>>
>>The US goverment would disagree:
>>
>>    
>>
>The FTC seems to imply that Kelly is right.
>
>http://www.ftc.gov/privacy/coppafaqs.htm
>
>18. Are websites run by nonprofit entities subject to the Rule?
>
>The Act and the Rule expressly state that they apply to commercial
>websites and not to nonprofits that would otherwise be exempt from
>coverage under Section 5 of the FTC Act. Thus, in general, most
>non-profits are not subject to the Rule. However, nonprofits that
>operate for the profit of their for-profit members may be subject to
>the Rule. See FTC v. California Dental Association 526 U.S. 756
>(1999), for additional guidance on when nonprofits are subject to FTC
>jurisdiction. Although true nonprofits are not subject to COPPA, we
>encourage them to set an example by posting privacy policies and
>providing the protections set forth in COPPA to children providing
>personal information at their sites.
>  
>
The Foundation is exempt, the community is not (communities have been 
ruled to be entities in several court cases since they
have rights, like the right to privacy and anonymity). It's a seperate 
entity engaged in commerce of Encyclopedic content
with an FGDL cost structure of $0. It's pretty simple to just play it 
safe and put in an age disclaimer when an account
is created. Whether it applies or not sounds like one of those 
experimental law questions that would be better NOT ever put
to the test and an easy solution to bury the whole argument is just to 
put some sort of age verification question on the account
creation template. It costs and gives up nothing and removes any 
question about stuff like this.

:-)

Jeff


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