This is very interesting Ting just to reply to one (fairly minor!) part re: WMUK & WMDE strategy, I agree further sharing and coordination would be a good thing (indeed, we did try to look to other chapters/organisations for guidance) but I also think thinking about localisation of strategy is important, and within the spirit of distribution. Im hoping we can discuss both of these aspects - co-ordination, and localisation - at wmcon in Berlin this week and would welcome thoughts on this element (on a new thread probably).
Best Simon On 7 Apr 2014 16:49, "Cristian Consonni" <kikkocrist...@gmail.com> wrote: > Hi Ting, > > Thank you for sharing your view. It is interesting in many aspects, > and I think that I support its spirit but I feel obliged to add a > couple of points. > > 2014-04-07 15:39 GMT+02:00 Ting Chen <wing.phil...@gmx.de>: > [...] > > Even though the Foundation had increased its legal > > department and had tentatively tried to work out an approach to support > its > > community in legal conflict basically it is still working with the old > > strategy: In case there is a legal case in a foreign country the > Foundation > > will avoid the call of the court while the Chapter will deny any > > responsibility for the content. This leaves in the end all potential > hazards > > to the volunteer who contributed the content. In case of a court suit he > is > > probably the one that have the worse legal support and had to take the > > charge privately, even if he handled legally and in good will. > > I can confirm that, this is precisely what Wikimedia italia is doing > right now (and rightly so) for the infamous "20 million EURO lawsuit"[1] > you should already know about. Plus, the fact that we do not have any > responsibility over the projects nor we want to "intervene" or > "manage" them is in our bylaws[2] too. > > It is worth adding that following the law and jurisprudence in Italy > (but mind that IANAL) the mere possession of servers can be enough for > an Italian judge to consider you responsible of the contents. That's > why Wikimedia Italia does not want any server. > > Moreover, the association itself is not a legal person and its rights > and duties are exercised in the person of his legal representative, > that is the chair (in Italian, presidente) So in the aforementioned > case the lawsuit is on the shoulders and head of Frieda herself (which > was the chair and legal representative at the time). > You can imagine that in no way we can think that a single person > accepts this kind of burden (I mean, we have already received a 20M EURO > lawsuit and we don't even have any servers!). > > [...] > > > This also means that the chapters, as far as there is one, should be > able to > > take the responsibility for the content and the hosting of those servers > in > > their country. They should be obliged to provide legal consultation and > > defense to the community, which means a distribution of the legal defense > > from a central point into the world, to the chapters and directly to the > > communities. Indeed the legal consultation and protection of the > community > > is in my opinion one of the most missed duty of the chapters and the > > Foundation to the movement. > > Well, Wikimedia Italia is providing assistance to Frieda since day 1, > of course. it is also worth mentioning that the case should reach its > end sometimes this year (it needed only 5 years) > > Cristian > (speaking in my personal capacity) > > [1] > https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/User_talk:Jimbo_Wales/Archive_50#Wikimedia_Italia_in_trouble > [2] {{it}} http://wiki.wikimedia.it/wiki/Statuto > These are probably outdated: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Wikimedia_Italia/bylaws > We have modified our bylaws in 2009 to become a registered non-profit: > > _______________________________________________ > 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>
