Most importantly for all this, the SERVERS are not hosted in Finland (unless something snuck in there behind my back).
Under US and EU laws, I would think there's no Finnish jurisdiction over where the servers are located. If the Finnish Police are asserting authority over any website written in their language, there's a problem. If they think they're hosted in Finland, then there's just a quick educational explanation pointing to the WMF server locations documentation. In any case, pass this to le...@wikimedia.org On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 5:54 PM, Kevin Gorman <kgor...@gmail.com> wrote: > I would dispute the suggestion the Finnish Wikipedia is specific to > Finland; I read it regularly and have never been to Finland. There are at > a bare minimum something like 300,000 fluent Finnish speakers who don't > live in Finland (and I don't think that's counting the portion of Swedes > who speak Finnish,) so although the fundraising banner probably primarily > attracted donations from people in Finland, it likely attracted plenty of > donations from other countries as well. > > Best, > Kevin Gorman > > > On Fri, Feb 7, 2014 at 5:38 PM, Charles Gregory <wmau.li...@chuq.net> > wrote: > > > In Australia, we (Wikimedia Australia) had to get fundraising approval > > before the 2010 fundraiser (when the chapters accepted and processed the > > payments and then passed a share back to the Wikimedia Foundation). This > > was made more complicated due to the fundraising laws being a state issue > > rather than national and so we had to seek approval from each state, some > > with different requirements than others (for example, some needed a > member > > in that state willing to act as a contact person). > > > > When this arrangement ended and Wikimedia Foundation took on the > > fundraising themselves, this was no longer a requirement due to the WMF > not > > being an Australian organisation. (Although we advised WMF to seek their > > own legal advice to confirm this) > > > > Your situation appears to be different for several reasons: > > 1) Your situation involves a group of users, not a chapter (the donation > is > > to a non-Finnish organisation) > > 2) The donation information is in a language specific to your country - > and > > so by targetting Finnish speakers, they were targetting Finland > residents - > > whereas the same language is spoken in Australia and the United States. > > > > With #1 - given the number of smaller websites with a "Donate via Paypal" > > button in the corner, I don't think this should be an issue. > > > > The only thing that would shift this in the Finnish police's favour is > #2 - > > suggesting that Finns were involved in the fundraising - and as others > have > > said, this could quite easily be a person (or people) who the Finnish > > government has no jurisdiction over (a national of another country who > has > > learned Finnish, for example). Unless the Finnish Government has some > sort > > of strange ownership or legal connection to the Finnish language... > > > > (Dislcaimer: IANAL of course) > > > > (BTW - I was amused that even Google translate failed to translate Nemo's > > link the first time around!) > > > > Regards, > > > > Charles Gregory > > (User:Chuq) > > > > > > > > On Sat, Feb 8, 2014 at 8:33 AM, Leinonen Teemu <teemu.leino...@aalto.fi > > >wrote: > > > > > Hi, > > > > > > I just got a message that the Finnish Police have asked the > fi.wikipedia, > > > by sending an email to the wikifi-ad...@list.wikimedia.org, to give a > > > written statement about their possible violation of the laws that > > regulate > > > fundraising in Finland. There is a little news about this already > online > > in > > > English. Here: > > > > > > > > > > > > http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests > > > > > > I chat about this with a lawyer friend and he was afraid that the > police > > > msy go after the volunteers that have participated in the fundraising, > > e.g. > > > by translating the fundraising messages. > > > > > > Is there any equivalent cases from other countries? > > > > > > In Finland one needs a pre-given permission to do fundraising. > > > > > > - Teemu > > > > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > Teemu Leinonen > > > http://teemuleinonen.fi > > > +358 50 351 6796 > > > Media Lab > > > http://mlab.uiah.fi > > > Aalto University > > > School of Arts, Design and Architecture > > > -------------------------------------------------- > > > > > > > > > _______________________________________________ > > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > _______________________________________________ > > Wikimedia-l mailing list > > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > > > _______________________________________________ > Wikimedia-l mailing list > Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, > <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe> > -- -george william herbert george.herb...@gmail.com _______________________________________________ Wikimedia-l mailing list Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>