[Foundation-l] UCMJ and Wikimedia

[Thomas Dalton]

On 02/01/2008, Mike Godwin <mnemonic at gmail.com> wrote:
>
> Nathan asks:
> >  http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Orangemarlin#Contacting_people.27s_employers_in_real_life
> >
> > This is an interesting thread (one of a few on this subject, including
> > in the Jimsch62 (sp) RfAr) - two editors who are in the military/work
> > for the US government claim that it is their legal responsibility to
> > report to the USAF the use of a military PC to edit Wikipedia because
> > that is a violation of the UCMJ. I'm curious about whether that is
> > true, and if it is why we don't block .mil IPs from editing en masse.
> >
> > Mike Godwin, do you have an opinion on this issue?
>
> My professional opinion is that we are under no obligation to either
> (a) enforce the UCMJ as to editors who happen to be in the military,
> or (b) categorically bar those who are subject to the UCMJ, which
> probably includes but is not exclusive to those with .mil addresses,
> because the they have professional obligations to report (purported)
> violations of the UCMJ.
>
> We know to a reasonable certainty that there are editors with ties to
> law enforcement, military, and anti-espionage agencies.  I don't see
> how we can reasonably police their engagement with our services in a
> categorical way. Obviously, we may choose to bar particular users
> based on their behavior, which may include violation of Wikimedia's
> privacy policies. But I could not endorse any measure that
> categorically barred anyone with a .mil address from editing.

Are you saying there is some legal reason *not* to ban all .mil's from
editing, or are you just saying we have no legal obligation to do so?
I'm not quite sure what you mean by "could not endorse".