[Wikipedia-l] Legal challenge from Enforcer

[Jimmy Wales]

Gabriel Beecham wrote:
> He says he has done research finding that the
> foundation is breaking the law, and appears to have
> groomed "potential complainants" to file lawsuits
> against the Wikimedia Foundation in their respective
> states. I'm no legal person, so could anyone tell me
> whether what he is saying is correct, whether anything
> needs to be rectified, who he really is (in terms of a
> user), and how he can be dealt with?

What he is saying is not correct, and who he is, I don't really know,
other than that he's most likely the same person as EntmootsOfTrolls,
"24", etc.  The writing style is essentially similar, and his uniform
hatred of me and the Wikipedia project is identical.

As to the question he's raising -- whether we need to register in all
the states, it's pretty much a gray area of the law.  As I understand
it, we are *not* soliciting people for donations -- to do that, we'd
have to be approaching them, as opposed to them approaching us.  And
if we *were* soliciting people for donations, we would be doing it
*here* in Florida.  But there is apparently very little precedent in
this area, because as a matter of fact, these laws are not always
vigorously enforced anyway.

Nonetheless, I have said for a long time now that I think we should
eventually get registered in all the states, as well as in any nations
where this sort of things seems important, if for no other reason than
to eliminate even the possibility of someone making this accusation.

The separate accusation that he made -- that we are not disclosing
everything that we legally need to disclose to donors, is absurd.  We
don't just disclose everything that we legally need to disclose, we
disclose just about *everything* period.  The only thing that I do
keep private is the personal information of contributors, which is not
only within our rights, but is also the right thing to do.

--Jimbo