[WikiEN-l] The problem with flagging things with {{office}}

[Fastfission]

Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but if Wikimedia were found
liable for Wikitruth's deliberate and purposeful attempt to re-spread
material we removed at request of someone else, wouldn't Wikimedia
have standing for suing Wikitruth as attempting to defraud Wikimedia
or something like that?

FF

On 4/20/06, James D. Forrester <james at jdforrester.org> wrote:
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> Using the {{office}} template to tag problem content is a nice idea,
> but, I would imagine, has a rather serious drawback: Wikitruth.info
> (amongst other 'helpful' critics) seems to have a sysop working for
> them. Were we to flag an article that was libellous with {{office}}, you
> can bet that they would go and dig out the deleted sections, and repost
> it to their wonderful service. Now Wikimedia has been informed that they
> are likely to be sued, and in response has done something knowing that
> it would increase the publication and spread of this libel. - we're then
> liable for their reposting of the content, and "utterly screwed". I
> know, I know, "that's not what was intended". Well, tough, that's the
> way the Real World(tm) works.
>
> So, what does this mean? Well, flagging articles as Office-protected is
> a legal no-no in that kind of case, and something significantly less
> high profile has to be done - and, possibly, the existence of this
> action would be buried for all eternity (or, certainly, several decades,
> which on the Internet is much the same thing).
>
> This is something that we have to deal with /now/ - the Foundation could
> possibly be sued out of existence tomorrow. There is no time for us to
> have a nice chat, or wring our hands about whether it's properly the
> "wiki way". We're here to build an encyclopædia, above all things, and
> if you don't care that the Foundation is here to keep everything
> working, then possibly you need to re-evaluate your priorities and
> commitment to this project; Distributed Proofreaders could always do
> with a few more volunteers, for instance.
>
> Please note that this is all conjecture on my part, I'm not the one who
> makes {{office}} decisions.
>
> Yours sincerely,
> - --
> James D. Forrester
> Wikimedia : [[W:en:User:Jdforrester|James F.]]
> E-Mail    : james at jdforrester.org
> IM (MSN)  : jamesdforrester at hotmail.com
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