On Thu, 12 Jul 2012 13:34:46 -0400, Nathan wrote:
Is there a "service provider" exemption for entities like Wikimedia
in
Russia?
Not that I know of.
Is it possible that making the Russian Wikipedia inaccessible for a
period in order to protest a Russian law might be considered
political
activism in Russia?
Legally, no, it is not political activism. From the point of view of
having good relation with the authorities, this, of course, complicates
things.
I don't believe the WMF itself has any assets in
Russia, but it seems like that wouldn't prevent the Russian
authorities
from taking steps against the Foundation if the Russian Wikipedia
community
decides to take steps like this again.
Formally, they can shut down access to Russian Wikipedia on November 1.
In reality, I doubt very much they are going to do it. I do not see what
they can gain, and the public opinion, however weak, will not approve
it.
What about other countries? If the Arabic Wikipedia decides to
protest laws
in Saudi Arabia or Egypt, or the Chinese Wikipedia against the PRC,
etc.,
has anyone at the Foundation evaluated if there are any risks
involved or
potential repercussions?
I guess in this case nobody asked the Foundation beforehand. And I
think the fact that nobody from wm.ru cared to show up here to provide
info and answer questions (Victoria and myself are not members and none
of us is a Russian resident, though I am a Russian citizen and was
flying from Russia just last weekend) is in my opinion very illustrative
in this respect.
But indeed a good question is would it be for instance a good idea to
blackout Chinese Wikipedia to protest the firewall. My opinion is no. It
would expose a number of people to immediate danger without any obviousl
benefits, since the probability that the blackout can change anything is
increasingly low.
Cheers
Yaroslav
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