Wikipedia Lawsuit: A Defining Moment for Citizen Journalists?
TECHNOLOGY
COMMENTARY
In what may be the first public showdown between folks who create user generated content on the Internet and private individuals, Wikipedia now appears the subject of a planned class-action lawsuit. The centerpiece of the complaint is the erroneous, and perhaps sometimes libelous nature of user authored content presented to the public without accountability.
If the suit is real and moves from planning into active litigation, it will be an interesting test to see if Wikipedia is an Internet service falling under the "ignorance is bliss" umbrella where liability for the activities of its customers is generally based on a knowledge of the customer's activity, or if Wikipedia will be determined to be a product or publication and held accountable for content under communications law. Bloggers would do well to take note and follow this news.
NEWSBYTE
Wikipedia Class Action Lawsuit
There is a problem with the operation and functionality of Wikipedia. The basic problem is that none of the Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., nor any of the volunteers who are connected with Wikipedia, consider themselves responsible and therefore accountable for the content. Visit page. (Editors Update: The URL for the class action link has been shut down.)
Please see: http://www.wikipediaclassaction.org/
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Tags: News, Computers and Internet, technology, New Media, online, Web2.0, Web 2.0, Wikipedia
COMMENTARYIn what may be the first public showdown between folks who create user generated content on the Internet and private individuals, Wikipedia now appears the subject of a planned class-action lawsuit. The centerpiece of the complaint is the erroneous, and perhaps sometimes libelous nature of user authored content presented to the public without accountability.
If the suit is real and moves from planning into active litigation, it will be an interesting test to see if Wikipedia is an Internet service falling under the "ignorance is bliss" umbrella where liability for the activities of its customers is generally based on a knowledge of the customer's activity, or if Wikipedia will be determined to be a product or publication and held accountable for content under communications law. Bloggers would do well to take note and follow this news.
NEWSBYTE
Wikipedia Class Action Lawsuit
There is a problem with the operation and functionality of Wikipedia. The basic problem is that none of the Trustees of Wikimedia Foundation, Inc., nor any of the volunteers who are connected with Wikipedia, consider themselves responsible and therefore accountable for the content. Visit page. (Editors Update: The URL for the class action link has been shut down.)
Please see: http://www.wikipediaclassaction.org/
RELATED
A False Wikipedia Biography
Tags: News, Computers and Internet, technology, New Media, online, Web2.0, Web 2.0, Wikipedia
posted by Steven Moyer at 11:26 PM
4 Comments:
There is no class action yet. There is only a website that claims there will be one. Sometimes. Most probably never.
I believe I clearly stated that the story was about a planned lawsuit.
I hope John Graham is right on this one, though I would be curious to see how this one plays out.
Yeah, Tank, I agree that most mass tort smells like a boiler-room operation in a John Grisham paperback.
However, the fact remains that what passes for the NYT/mainstream brand of professional journalism, never mind the bias, is 'professional' because it is edited and accountable.
I may be wrong but in the case of wiki what is set to play out is an identity crisis. Is wiki (and blogging) just the software or is it more?
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