----- Original Message ----- From: "Fred Bauder" fredbaud@ctelco.net To: "Alex T." alex756@nyc.rr.com; "English Wikipedia" wikien-l@Wikipedia.org Sent: Tuesday, September 30, 2003 8:40 AM Subject: Re: [WikiEN-l] Wikilists and GDFL
The violation, the infringement, the tortious conduct such as defamation
or
invasion of privacy are all the work of volunteer contributors. It is their wrong, it
is
their copyright infringement, it is their action, it is not the action of "us" or "we". There is no "us" or "we" in this regard.
We do have a collective responsibility however it may be expressed
legally.
We are working toward, and perhaps have now, established a non-profit corporation. As a corporation the usual rules apply and the corporation is responible with auxilliary responsibility with individuals who may have commited a particular transgression.
I disagree with this completely. Jimbo has started a non-profit corporation to aid in the financial stability of Wikipedia so it survives. We are not that corporation and we will probably only participate in that corporation by donating to it. The corporation is in no way responsible for the contributions of members. This is outragously wrong to think that someone is absolved of personal responsiblity by posting something to an OSP as user: JamesDay points out that Wikipedia is. It is the poster who always has and always will be responsible no matter how much the volunteers try to protect the good name of Wikipedia, fundamentally it is the duty of contributors to make sure that their work is not in violation of any laws. They are doing the contributing. How can we be responsible for the defamation done by some third person, we may not even know that it has gone on until long after it happened?
Alex756