[Foundation-l] Litigation costs

[Brian McNeil]

Mike Godwin wrote:

>Then I think the obvious next question is, how much money (in dollars  
>or Euros) should we be willing to allocate every year to the defense  
>of cases we believe we will likely win?  Or, to put it another way,  
>how much of our budget (in percentages) should we be willing to  
>allocate every year to the defense of cases we believe we will win?

I'm going to ignore a huge amount of the prior discussion because I think
this is a key issue that Mike could expand on.

Lawsuits are expensive and some litigious people are well aware how to game
the system in an effort to wear down your warchest. Wikimedia - and
Wikipedia in particular - is a target that many people would love to see
disqualified from claiming the protections they do under ISP status. If you
sit back and think about the discussions that have been followable over the
past few days/weeks then there are little technical details like peering
arrangements which help solidify that position.

Personally, I don't have any doubt it should actually be a line item on the
detailed budget... But the one that is published should roll it up into
other legal advice and consulting costs to conceal the size of the warchest.

On the other hand, I wonder that if the Foundation goes beyond fighting
cases to retain their ISP status and protect the rights they extend under
privacy policy then they will lose the former.

In the end it all comes down to the individuals who write, support, and
possibly protect material that becomes contentious. I am sure that Mike
would likely off the record suggest options to discuss with a lawyer and,
depending on his informal advice and understanding of the situation, bring
it up with ex-colleagues at the EFF.

Suing someone who has breached the terms under which Wikimedia content is
made available is entirely a different matter.

Forgive me if some of this is retreading old ground, but I've over 50
messages for this list since yesterday. Can we have a rerun (or a January
run) of the top poster stats?  I was 2nd last time and felt embarrassed
despite having thought most of what I wrote was close to the topic in
question.


Brian McNeil