Re: 19.474 Wikipedia: not such a wonderful world? (fwd)

[BobAuler]

In a message dated 12/3/05 10:15:07 PM, [EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:

And so we live in a universe of new media with phenomenal opportunities
for worldwide communications and research - but populated by volunteer
vandals with poison-pen intellects. Congress has enabled them and
protects them.

the pain of this man, unfortunately, must be measured against the use of the net by millions.  it is possible to be run over crossing the street by some asshole who thinks it is cute to see how close he can come to hitting a pedestrian. 

he documents the way to find the assassin.  a john doe suit isn't very expensive, since it will not be resisted...at least until he finds the idiot.  a subpoena to bell south normally will issue upon request of the attorney, or even the pro-se litigant.  if he drafts his own complaint, filing fees will be in the short hundreds.  he can even pick a rural jurisdiction near him where filing fees are very low, since the single publication rule should permit venue anyplace there is wikipedia access.

unfortunately this is a cost of doing business in a free society.  he doesn't need to sue wikipedia, and the congressional enactment is wise or there would be millions of actions filed against providers who forward crap like this, or even innocent and true statements which arouse some group or individual...how'd you like the pro-life bunch suing the list serve for this wryting group?  congress for once isn't the culprit.  it only protects the provider from expensive litigation for passing on what may or may not be true, but which is in such volume it can't be checked. 

his real remedy is to find the jerk and correct the matter with him

another more creative approach would be for him to recontact the wikipedia people and ask that they link to a "corrections and egregious errors"  list they could set up and note prominetly on their web page.  any claims of error could be documented, and even undocumented corrections or claims could be listed with the appropriate label that they have not been verified.

these are the only ways consistent with a free society.

bob (yes, a lawyer who has done this sort of thing)