Amir E. Aharoni wrote:
On 28/01/2008, daniwo59@aol.com daniwo59@aol.com wrote:
The current article also suffers from all the brouhaha around it. It has been edited by several new accounts, which are most probably operated by experienced users whose reaction to the situation is part encyclopedic, part tongue-in-cheek. Certainly not the right way to handle it.
Yes, the article is POV and Yitzhak is known for 1) being litigious, and 2) twisting facts.
Wikipedians must not live in fear of litigation. As i stated on the Hebrew talk page - an encyclopedia writer must fear the lie itself, not the punishment for it.
Lawyers must not decide what encyclopedic truth is, but since lawyers are an unfortunate part of reality, unpleasant action sometimes must be taken. But what happened in this case was based on guesses and (understandable) fears and not on proper legal advice.
I'm sure that discussions of this kind already happened many times on the English Wikipedia and i don't need to add much more. Your experience on the matter can help. I really don't think that we in he.wiki should reinvent the wheel.
You wouldn't be the one reinventing the wheel; those purporting to sue would be. Cases involving someone trying to suppress information have already been beaten back in Germany and France. Why should it be any different in Israel? Wikimedia-Israel has no control over the web site, and unless it actually starts to host material directly there is no basis for prosecuting it. If individual Israelis want to post libellous material they need to accept personal responsibility for their own actions.
Ec