SJ hinted at a related problem which is that we'd also need a backup
organizational structure to run things operationally and legally. If the US
becomes so politically unstable that hosting Wikimedia data is under threat
there, just moving the data would not be enough. You'd also have to include
a contingency plan that foresaw the need to legally operate the Foundation
(or an equivalent organization anyway) under a different jurisdiction
with corporate officers not subject to US law or extradition. If the
servers are hosted in the EU but the legally controlling body and its
employees are within the US, you could still see them legally forced to
comply with an order, just like companies are forced to do so in
other countries with censorious regimes today.
On Wed, Sep 30, 2020 at 8:59 AM Samuel Klein <meta.sj(a)gmail.com> wrote:
We should have technical partners in multiple other
jurisdictions that
could help in a crisis, and load bearing infrastructure in at least one of
them, and a plan for how and when to switch. (The walkthrough of what would
be needed for a smooth transfer send most important, and useful for general
reliability planning)
We should also fully support and realize Wikimedia-on-ipfs, similar to what
the internet archive had been doing. (Santhosh has some excellent ideas
there)
🌍🌏🌎🌑
On Wed., Sep. 30, 2020, 5:35 a.m. Dan Garry (Deskana), <djgwiki(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
On Wed, 30 Sep 2020 at 09:49, Erik Moeller
<eloquence(a)gmail.com> wrote:
I hope that some preliminary contingency plans
exist or are being
developed, and I'm sure that the movement-wide debate will widen if
the US continues its downward slide into authoritarianism.
I agree with Erik. Even under the Obama administration, there were
threats
to the existence of the movement, such as SOPA
[1] which lead to a
blackout
[2]. One can extrapolate from current events that
these threats could
well
get larger and more frequent, rather than smaller
and less frequent,
should
someone in the US Government decide to focus
their attention on attacking
Wikipedia and free knowledge. It would be prudent to create a contingency
plan which includes an exploration of other options for a location of
operation for the Wikimedia Foundation and/or its servers, with their
advantages and disadvantages. I personally wouldn't necessarily advocate
for making the plan public; that would be ideal, but I'd be comforted
merely to know it exists.
On Tue, 29 Sep 2020 at 23:36, Joseph Seddon <josephseddon(a)gmail.com>
wrote:
I believe options are going to be explored for
sustainability but right
now
legally speaking the US is the best jurisdiction
for hosting us now and
the
foreseeable future.
I agree with this too. For now, the United States remains the best place
for the organisation to operate out of, and a move should not be actively
considered.
Dan
[1]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stop_Online_Piracy_Act
[2]:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Protests_against_SOPA_and_PIPA#Wikimedia_comm…
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