2008/6/23 WJhonson@aol.com:
The Star Wars boy could only sue under two jurisdictions. Either the one where he lives, or the one where Wikipedia headquarters lives. He can't choose to sue anywhere in the world. It would probably set a legal precedent were some court in the US to decide that merely "naming" a person is harassment or whatever.
Sadly, no; he can "choose" to sue in a number of jurisdictions which a) interpret the act of defamation as having occurred in the location where it was read, not the location where it was originally published; and b) percieve him as having standing to be defamed. This isn't a new concept; we even have an article on it. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Libel_tourism
Sure, WMF - or any random editor - is fairly safe from this; but the fact remains it happens. Repeatedly asserting that this isn't the case really isn't helping your argument, here.
A reporter shows what's going on, they don't hide from it on some moral high ground while wearing blinders. Our job is to show the world as it is, not as we wish it were by hiding from it.
Our job is to WRITE AN ENCYCLOPEDIA.