[WikiEN-l] BLPs: Wikipedia entry nearly scuppers rugby player's career

[Philip Sandifer]

On Oct 2, 2008, at 10:28 AM, geni wrote:

> 2008/10/2 Philip Sandifer <snowspinner at gmail.com>:
>>
>> On Oct 2, 2008, at 10:17 AM, geni wrote:
>>
>>> 2008/10/2 Philip Sandifer <snowspinner at gmail.com>:
>>>> Yeah, because Wikipedia works much better when it can behave more
>>>> sociopathically.
>>>>
>>>> -Phil
>>>
>>> We have an article [[Tank Man]]. The Chinese government probably  
>>> takes
>>> the view that it harms their countries stability.
>>>
>>> I suspect [[Gary Glitter]] would argue that our article harms him.
>>>
>>> Reality is a well known BLP violation.
>>
>> In neither of those cases are we *doing* harm. Harm to the people has
>> been done, certainly, but we come late to the party.
>
> Err yes we are. You may be hurting the Chinese government right now.
> You may not have a problem with hurting the Chinese government but
> that runs into problems with the do no harm approach.
>
> Do no harm is not a useful tool or guide because it can so trivially
> be shown to be flawed (mostly through cases of where any action causes
> some harm but also through showing than any action causes hard).
> Greatest good for the greatest number is slightly more robust but runs
> into issues with individual liberties.

I would suggest that if someone is as committed as you are suggesting  
to rules lawyering basic ethics, the rule isn't the root problem.

-Phil