Posted by Eugene Volokh:
Libel Lawsuit Over Wikipedia Edits,
http://volokh.com/archives/archive_2009_07_05-2009_07_11.shtml#1247160895
as reported by [1]Ed Brayton in The ichigan Messenger:
Longtime Ingham County Commissioner and Michigan political
consultant Mark Grebner has filed a defamation lawsuit in Ingham
County Circuit Court against three men for allegedly editing false
and defamatory information into his biographical entry on
Wikipedia.
The three defendants are Dennis Lennox, a Central Michigan
University student who received a great deal of attention over the
last few years for a string of politically-charged incidents on
that campus and was elected Cheboygan County drain commissioner
last year; Bradley Dennis, a member of the Michigan State
University College Republicans who ran an unsuccessful campaign
against Grebner for the Ingham County Commission last fall; and MSU
sophomore Anthony Giammarinaro.
The three are accused of editing Grebner�s Wikipedia entry to
include information that Grebner, a Democrat, argues is false and
libelous....
The lawsuit is not against Wikipedia itself, so there isn't any [2]47
U.S.C. � 230 problem. In many ways, it's a traditional libel lawsuit
against the alleged authors of the libel. Still, it seems to be one of
the first lawsuits filed against people who have written or edited
Wikipedia entries, so I thought I'd note it. Many thanks to Jason
Miller for the pointer.
References
1.
http://michiganmessenger.com/22336/grebner-files-libel-suit-over-wikipedia-edits
2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Section_230_of_the_Communications_Decency_Act
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