The wmf simply can't pursue legal actions against Harald Bischoff for the individuals who probably suffered damage. It is up to the community to investigate. For example banning him for copyright trolling [1].
A discussion has been started on commons [1]. Apart from that, i find it problematic that Bischoff is claiming to take pictures for the wmf on his userpage. [1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Copyright_troll [2] https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/Commons:Administrators%27_noticeboard#Legal_action_resulting_from_photographs_by_Haraldbischoff > From: jdevre...@wikimedia.org > Date: Mon, 27 Jul 2015 10:33:45 +0200 > To: wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org > Subject: Re: [Wikimedia-l] Does Foundation have 3rd party standing against > Harald Bischoff? > > Hey Pine (& All) > > I think that the statement “there is no harm” in asking the > Foundation/chapter staff (legal or otherwise) to do something is not always > true. > > Every request has at least an “opportunity cost” (meaning there is something > else that cannot be done). When there are situations when you genuinely need > Foundation staff to answer something that is fine, but I think that Risker is > arguing that it is best to wait with a request such as this until you are > actually at the point of needing that energy to be spent (when the community > discussion has concluded) > > I am sympathetic to this because I often see requests coming by which really > do not take into account the amount of time it takes to provide an answer. Of > course there is always room for legitimate requests but I would encourage > everyone to think twice before asking staff members (of the Foundation or > their chapter) to commit time on something which might be of personal > interest to them, or is a hypothetical situation which might well wait until > the situation has become reality. > > Jan-Bart > > > > On 27 Jul 2015, at 01:03, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > > Risker, > > > > James' question is about legal standing. There are also questions about > > license compliance. I believe that those are both within the scope of WMF > > Legal to analyze, and are sepatate from questions about compliance with > > community policy. The community and WMF can look into this situation in > > parallel and make separate determinations of what action, if any, to take. > > WMF might decide to take no action or wait for community actions to take > > place first, or they might decide to be more energetic. There is no harm, > > and potentially much good, in asking WMF what they can do about a situation > > like this. > > > > Pine > > On Jul 26, 2015 3:04 PM, "Risker" <risker...@gmail.com> wrote: > > > >> Pine, why are you pinging WMF Legal on this? It is considerably premature > >> to expect them to do anything much more than read the relevant > >> discussions, maybe, if they have an intern to spare. What action do you > >> expect them to take, when the community has yet to determine whether or not > >> its own standards have been met, whether there is actually an issue, here, > >> whether what the user in question is doing is actually wrong or is well > >> within the acceptable parameters of that project. Should the community > >> involved believe that they need assistance on this matter, they will then > >> be able to decide if it is necessary to discuss with WMF Legal. Looking at > >> this user's talk page at dewp and Commons, nobody seems to have raised the > >> issue directly with him on-wiki. > >> > >> Calling upon WMF staff and expecting them to deal with all kinds of issues > >> that are not ripe for their attention, are still being addressed within the > >> relevant community, or (as in this case) are not being discussed in the > >> relevant community at all, is not really appropriate, and I for one would > >> appreciate if you'd stop doing that. > >> > >> Risker/Anne > >> > >> On 26 July 2015 at 17:45, Pine W <wiki.p...@gmail.com> wrote: > >> > >>> Pinging WMF Legal to ask about what WMF can do about this entire > >> situation. > >>> > >>> Pine > >>> On Jul 26, 2015 1:06 PM, "James Salsman" <jsals...@gmail.com> wrote: > >>> > >>>> If Harald Bischoff has defrauded Commons reusers by requiring stricter > >>>> attribution than the community requires, does the Foundation have > >>> standing > >>>> in Germany to require him to return the money to his victims in > >>> proportion > >>>> to the extent that their attribution was improper? > >>>> _______________________________________________ > >>>> Wikimedia-l mailing list, guidelines at: > >>>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >>>> 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, guidelines at: > >>> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >>> 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, guidelines at: > >> https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > >> 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, guidelines at: > > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > > 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, guidelines at: > https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines > 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, guidelines at: https://meta.wikimedia.org/wiki/Mailing_lists/Guidelines Wikimedia-l@lists.wikimedia.org Unsubscribe: https://lists.wikimedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikimedia-l, <mailto:wikimedia-l-requ...@lists.wikimedia.org?subject=unsubscribe>
