True Fred. But it is invaluable in terms of media handling of the storyIff a journalist asks Jimbo whether WP has received full legal advice on his actions and he says "yes. And we have been careful to follow it. But different lawyers have different interpretations of the relevant statutes" then the result is one kind of story - "Wikipedia is legal grey area".
If however Jimbo was to say "no", going by Ray's perspective on things, then the next day you'd have a whole new, big story "Wikipedia never checked law" which would, as we media types say, 'give the story new legs'. It would be a absolute disaster for WP and would see people pissed off by WP rushing to their own lawyers to try to see could they find some reason to sue.
Not getting legal advice, even if the result was ambiguous, and then having to admit you hadn't done so, would quite simply be suicide for Wikipedia. Ray may not grasp that (yes another example of the niavety and foolishness that got us into this mess) but Jimbo as a successful businessman no doubt does. I also hope that Jimbo is getting professional media advice. Talking to the press without media training, as anyone who either works in the media or in careers that brings them in contact with the media, is chronic stupidity. One wrong phrase in an interview could do WP terminal damage if then quoted worldwide. Every word has to be carefully measured, and all interviews have to be 'on message' with nothing left to chance.
Thom
Fred Bauder fredbaud@ctelco.net wrote: A good lawyer can lay out convincing arguments for both sides of any proposition.
Fred
On Dec 10, 2005, at 1:09 AM, Ray Saintonge wrote:
Andrew Gray wrote:
On 09/12/05, Matt Brown wrote:
The problem as I see it is that the Wikimedia Foundation might not want to appear to be passing out legal advice to our contributors ...
Indeed. The WMF takes legal advice when it feels the need to take advice, as I understand it; when an active legal issue arises where we're doing something particularly wrong, Things Get Done With Emphasis, Underlined, In Parentheses And Quotated.
(or something like that)
Recall, for example, the missing-articles-in-Britannica list deletions...
Yes, I recall it, and if I recall correctly legal opinion was divided.
Ec
WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
_______________________________________________ WikiEN-l mailing list WikiEN-l@Wikipedia.org To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit: http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
--------------------------------- Yahoo! Cars NEW - sell your car and browse thousands of new and used cars online search now ---------------------------------