These are very real issues.
1) The legal status of the enterprise:
If we as individuals sign up to Citizendium and we publish content we will have serious responsibilities. These are obviously joint but could apply to each of us severally. Who here would withstand a (lengthy) court case?
2) The principles of the enterprise:
I am concerned that this legal division between publisher and service provider will compromise the principles and aspirations of Citizendium.
a) Wikipedia can claim to be a service provider that collates many individuals' writing and makes it available for public consumption. Beyond applying simple (if only) rules of conduct they have to do very little to manage legal risk.
b) If Citizendium as an entity intends to shape and control content then it could be argued that it is the publisher. I argue that Citizendium should invite some authors, i.e. editors, only to select and adjust the incoming material: that material still comes from external individuals who choose to use the delivery service provided by Citizendium.
Of course, I Am Not A Lawyer, but I would like to see this issue cleared up now before we get too far.
-- Peter Hitchmough
On 10/20/06, Haukur Þorgeirsson <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> The first is to draft and agree a wide
> range of policies that will establish
> CZ as a publisher with the lowest
> possible exposure to external threats.
You'll want to start right there and not say the word 'publisher' unless
you really mean it. Read this interview:
http://www.law.com/jsp/article.jsp?id=1157557741507
Brad Patrick, Wikimedia's CG, goes to some lengths to try to establish
Wikimedia's status not as a *publisher* but as a *service provider*. If
this holds up in court it gives Wikimedia a much more favourable position
to withstand lawsuits on content (basically they'll claim that any
problematic content is not being published by them but by the editor who
posted it).
If Citizendium wants to do the same thing you'll want to be careful right
off the bat on insisting that you are a service provider and not a
publisher. If you do not want to do the same thing, and instead accept the
legal responsibility of a publisher, that would best be made explicit too.
Editors, authors and constables will want to know where they stand.
Regards,
Haukur
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