[WikiEN-l] A Crime in Missouri

[Fred Bauder]

> I assume you mean that the harassment/stalking was allegedly taking
> place on Wikipedia. IANAL but I do help prep civil cases, and the
> documentation listed below would be the bare minimum of what would be
> requested.  I don't know about Missouri, but pretty well any court in
> Canada would
> grant subpoenas for most of these documents.
>
> For the prosecution it would involve the records of the Foundation that
> contained information about the editor who carried out the
> stalking/harassment (userpages, real names if known, IP addresses and
> whatever information is available to checkusers, etc), and any
> documentation showing actions taken in relation to the harassment.  The
> contributions list of the editor, deleted versions of pages, deletion
> logs, block logs, and (if applicable) oversight logs are the most likely
> to be subpoenaed.  All prosecution evidence must (eventually) be turned
> over to the defense.
>
> On the defense side, they could well request subpoenas for the names and
> identities of editors/admins/checkusers who responded to the harassment
> or alternatively elected not to respond to the harassment (again,
> userpages, real names if known, and all info available to checkusers).
> The defense would probably have to show cause to get this information,
> but all they would likely need are printouts of diffs showing the
> username and the nature of the intervention.
>
> Either prosecution or defense may request all available personal info on
> the alleged victim; they might go after all of the contributions of the
> alleged victim as well.
>
> Somebody would probably be subpoenaed to testify on Wikipedia's policy
> about harassment and how it is enforced.  That could be very, very
> interesting.
>
> Risker

The burdens of discovery, testimony, and potential, including criminal,
liability are not the reason to have and enforce a harassment policy. The
best reason is to support our users and make a reasonable effort to
protect them from harassment both on and off site. As one can see from the
case of Megan Meier ([[Megan Meier suicide controversy]]), some people are
quite vulnerable.

Fred