Anthony DiPierro wrote:
On 12/7/05, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Anthony DiPierro wrote:
Steve Block wrote:
No, but it would be nice to hear people's opinions, and also nice to hear if any legal opinion had been given to Wikipedia regarding this.
Under US law, we aren't liable for libellous statements that are made by other people. UK law might differ, but to the extent it does that's not really all that interesting to most people on this list - the foundation is a US company (with, according to Kelly Martin, no legal presense in the UK).
It may come as a surprise to you, but many of us on the list are not Americans, and we find that kind of attitude deeply offensive. It may be true enough that the specific provisions of UK law may not be interesting to most of us, but if you substite the Wikipedian's own country for UK the resulting total will not be insignificant. This is precisely the kind of arrogant attitude that goes into the image of the "Ugly American".
Sorry. I think I misunderstood the question. I thought the "we" in the question was Wikipedia. But looking at it again, the concern seemed to be more over the individual editors, so the "we" was probably supposed to refer to individual UK citizens.
The problem related more to "most people on this list" rather than "we". I think that my point was made and understood; this is not a horse that runs well if it's flogged too much.
I hope you're not offended by the fact that I'm not interested in this.
What you may or may not be personally interested in is not a problem. It's perfectly normal for anyone to be interested in the laws of his own country, and citizens of other countries will have concerns about how they are affected by US law
I have enough trouble just keeping myself informed on the laws of Florida and the United States.
Absolutely.
(Incidently, I was thinking about starting a wikibook on US laws from a perspective of laws that everyone living or visiting here should know: free speech, search and seizure, copyright, the uniform commercial code, self defense and excessive use of force, etc. Anyone else interested in this?)
Interesting, and probably useful. I have briefly thought of a Wikibook on comparative copyrights, but am easily discouraged when I think of how much work is involved. I already have plenty to do.
Ec