[Foundation-l] Wikimedia Italia being sued

[Mike Godwin]

Nathan writes:

>
> Interesting. Although the Italian media also reported that I (and
> Jimbo and various others) was being sued for 50 million euros, and I
> haven't seen that lawsuit yet.
>

We've had a lot of experience of spurious reports of lawsuits originating in
Italy. In the majority of those cases, Wikimedia Foundation itself never
receives service of process -- in effect, the cases only really "exist" in
Italian media. I'm not saying that's the case here, but we haven't heard
anything yet from Italian process servers yet.

I'd like to see any official complaints that have been filed in Italian
courts (or elsewhere) against Wikimedia Italia. The chapter's defense (the
chapter doesn't produce Wikipedia content) should be straightforward under
any European legal regime, but obviously we will take an interest in any
case that seems to be going the wrong way.


> If the edits in question were made during a time when Frieda was on
> the Board of the Wikimedia Foundation (and even if not), I wonder if
> the WMF will contribute to her legal expenses.


WMF routinely provides director-and-officer liability protection regarding
actions taken by WMF directors and officers in the conduct of their duties.


--Mike