[Foundation-l] wikipedia.de shut down

[Marco Chiesa]

On Wed, Nov 19, 2008 at 8:03 PM, Ting Chen <wing.philopp a gmx.de> wrote:

>
>
> Heilmann complained through his lawyer at first by WikiMedia
> Deutschland. The chapter answered him that it is not responsible for the
> content on Wikipedia and they would do nothing. I agree with the first
> part of the answer, but I disagree with the second part. I think someone
> should have taken a glance at the complain. If that was done at that
> time, the whole thing would not have happend. And I disagree with people
> who are now happen about the surge in fundraising. This is not our way.
> The case was not so black and white and on the long term it can backfire
> on us.


The point is that the chapter is NOT responsible for the content of
Wikipedia. If as a chapter we receive a suggestion/complain about something
in Wikipedia, we forward the email to OTRS, because that's the address
that's dedicated to these things. If there is a lawsuit, as a chapter the
best response is: "We have nothing to do with the contents of Wikipedia",
which means, it's up to you to find out who you should sue (the individual
author or the WMF). But I don't think we should facilitate their task.

>
>
> Our content can ruin people. If someone complains about his biography,
> by OTRS or by a chapter or on village pump or in mailing-list, we should
> take a look at it and not just ignore it.
>
> If they complain via OTRS and we do nothing, we are negligent and this can
cause more trouble. If they complain on a village pump, they get into more
trouble, because it's a big amplifier, but still we have to do something;
same for the mailing lists. But the chapters are something else, it would be
like sueing a TV channel because a company they're broadcasting ads does
something wrong.

Cruccone