[Foundation-l] Re: Formal request: Wikinews project

[Jens Ropers]

Strong-worded, but I have to say that I gotta agree.
Fred's literally right on the money.
There's a lot on things that I found totally un-wikipedian about Erik's 
proposal, and many others have already pointed those things out, so I 
don't need to <AOL> them. (Suffice to say that I strongly oppose it in 
its present form.)
Considering the below legal issue however is a sine qua non:
Don't heed Fred's warning and your proposal has the potential 
to--excuse my language--royally shaft the entire Wikimedia Foundation 
and ALL its projects.

-- ropers [[en:User:Ropers]]
     www.ropersonline.com

On 12 Oct 2004, at 04:34, Fred Bauder wrote:

> Yeh, you folks are just not listening. You need to check into what 
> even a
> simple nuisance action against you would cost. God forbid, what the
> consequences would be if there was a substantial award against you.
>
> At a bare minimum, in order that all the work we have done doesn't end 
> up in
> the ownership of a plaintiff, the Wikinews project needs to be a 
> separate
> corporation.
>
> We are not a little hole in the corner outfit no one heard of anymore. 
> We
> are getting up there with the New York Times and CBS News who budget 
> millons
> for legal defense. Where is that kind of money going to come from?
>
> Fred
>
>> From: Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com>
>> Reply-To: Andrew Lih <andrew.lih at gmail.com>, Wikimedia Foundation 
>> Mailing List
>> <foundation-l at wikimedia.org>
>> Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 10:23:44 +0800
>> To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at wikimedia.org>
>> Subject: Re: [Foundation-l] Re: Formal request: Wikinews project
>>
>> This endeavour, while sharing Wikimedia's goals of openness, inclusion
>> and free content is the most ambitious project yet, because it becomes
>> primary source journalism. And with this, comes the baggage of having
>> to deal with libel and slander in ways Wikipedia does not, because WP
>> is one level of indirection away from accountable sources. Legal
>> counsel for any primary source reporting would be a necessity.
>
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