[WikiEN-l] JohnQ / MaryMary - the clitoris guy

[Ray Saintonge]

Anthere wrote:

>Imho, better trust us to have imagination and to find
>ways to turn around things.
>In France, I would say the toughest is not the law,
>the toughest are (is ?) the barriers people build
>themselves thinking of the law. 
>
This is an insightful comment, but its truth is not limited to France.  

There are a lot of people running around trying, in completely good 
faith, to impose an interpretation of the law that has more to do with 
their view of the law than the law itself.  In other words most of them 
have no idea what they are talking about, and no direct connection with 
the current issue.  At Wikipedia we probably notice it more in terms of 
intellectual property law, but it can also come up in other area such as 
libel, obscenity, sedition etc. My general approach to these is (in order):
    1.    Use common sense in what I say or write.
    2.    Investigate what business the complainer has making his complaint
    3.    Use common sense in evaluating the complaint
    4.    Admit when I'm wrong while knowing full well that it is easier 
to get forgiveness than to get permission

The difficulty is obtaining permission is not based on an unwillingness 
of somebody to give it, but in determining with any certainty just who 
has the right to give that permission.

Ec