[Foundation-l] UCMJ and Wikimedia

effe iets anders effeietsanders at gmail.com
Wed Jan 2 21:54:59 UTC 2008


I think, but i am not sure, that No Legal Threats is a local policy,
and not a policy issued by the Wikimedia Foundation? So I guess you'd
have to ask enwiki community in this case...

BR, Lodewijk

2008/1/2, Nathan <nawrich op gmail.com>:
> Thanks Mike. In your opinion, is there a conflict between our no legal
> threats policy and an editor warning another editor of their
> responsibility (as they claim) to report conduct that violates the
> UCMJ to military authorities? I.e. if someone has an affirmative
> responsibility to report a violation, can we resonably bar them from
> issuing a warning relating to that responsibility?
>
> On Jan 2, 2008 4:34 PM, Mike Godwin <mnemonic op gmail.com> wrote:
> >
> > Nathan asks:
> > >  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Orangemarlin#Contacting_people.27s_employers_in_real_life
> > >
> > > This is an interesting thread (one of a few on this subject, including
> > > in the Jimsch62 (sp) RfAr) - two editors who are in the military/work
> > > for the US government claim that it is their legal responsibility to
> > > report to the USAF the use of a military PC to edit Wikipedia because
> > > that is a violation of the UCMJ. I'm curious about whether that is
> > > true, and if it is why we don't block .mil IPs from editing en masse.
> > >
> > > Mike Godwin, do you have an opinion on this issue?
> >
> > My professional opinion is that we are under no obligation to either
> > (a) enforce the UCMJ as to editors who happen to be in the military,
> > or (b) categorically bar those who are subject to the UCMJ, which
> > probably includes but is not exclusive to those with .mil addresses,
> > because the they have professional obligations to report (purported)
> > violations of the UCMJ.
> >
> > We know to a reasonable certainty that there are editors with ties to
> > law enforcement, military, and anti-espionage agencies.  I don't see
> > how we can reasonably police their engagement with our services in a
> > categorical way. Obviously, we may choose to bar particular users
> > based on their behavior, which may include violation of Wikimedia's
> > privacy policies. But I could not endorse any measure that
> > categorically barred anyone with a .mil address from editing.
> >
> >
> > --Mike
> >
> >
> >
> >
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