I said before that Michael and Adam's 'trolling' of wiki, whatever one may think of it, never raised the problems including serious legal issues (ie possible copyright abuse) thrown up by DW. I'd like to amend that to suggest that Michael could potentially be raising another legal nightmare. A couple of times lately he has assumed the names of ''real people'' and claimed to be them when editing wiki. He apparently has now assumed the identity of actor Ahmed Best. Not knowing anything about Star Wars (I'm more of a Trekkie!) I know nothing of Mr. Best, including whether he does exist. But he does feature in wiki articles that seem to have been created by other genuine contributors, so I presume he must. According to the page of [[User:Jar Jar Binks]] (the character on Star Wars played by Best), Michael wrote: Hi there, I'm the real [[Jar Jar Binks]] ([[Ahmed Best]]). I heard this website is a tough place for a banned user that I don't know. I played in all [[Star Wars]] sequals from 1998 to 2003. Going by editing style, topics picked and past behaviour, not to mention the banned user jibe, Jar Jar Binks has generally been presumed to be Michael and Infromation reverted all JJB's edits (which in any case were strikingly typical of Michael). If [[User:Jar Jar Binks]] is not the actor he purports to be: What are the possible legal problems if any that might follow if someone not merely uses a real person's name but purporting to be him/her while contributing to wiki. While our NPOV policy should ensure that nothing written in articles could damage the reputation of the real person whose identity has been 'stolen', what of 'personal' comments, including abusive or threatening one, placed on users talk pages? While Michael has in the past used the real names of minor rock stars, using Ahmed Best is potentially more dangerous. i. Actors' names and identities are ruthlessly guarded by the actors' union, Equity; ii. Actors' agents and lawyers are also ruthless in their efforts to protect the name and reputation of an actor. This is understandable. An actor's employability rests on their reputation. Should someone in the movie business look at wiki and find comments of an abusive or threatening nature coming not merely from someone called ''Ahmed Best'' but supposedly from the Ahmed Best who starred in Star Wars, they could form the impression that Best is someone they should avoid employing. As a result, the name and reputation of an actor, being central to their employability, is ruthlessly guarded from exploitation by Equity, their agents and lawyers. The issue isn't what they purportedly said to 'x' or 'y' on wiki, but how what they supposed said reflects on them and their reputation. Even if Equity, the actor or his lawyers chose not to act, or were unaware of it, the use of the username Jar Jar Binks is also a potential legal minefield. Using a username is perfectly OK. But as the above quote shows, this supposed user claims a direct association with the star wars films. The chances are the /character/ JAR JAR BINKS is almost certainly the copyright property of George Lucas's company. The company might take considerable offence at the usage what they might see as not the use of a name but of a character. That could have implications for Ahmed Best, whom they might see as abusing their copyright by using a character of theirs which he played on screen in his private life off-screen, to gain attention, notoriety, etc. And that in turn might lead Equity or Best to raise the issue with wiki. Even if there was no legal case, it could be used by him to publicly attack wiki (to get publicity!), in the process of damaging our reputation. After all a serious encyclopædia hardly needs in the public mind with the impression that one of its contributors is someone who 'steals' actors identities and copyright names. Two final points: If Michael is willing to steal a real life actor's name and a copyright film character, having previously stolen the identity of some singers in some minor rock bands, whose identity will he steal next? Bono? Some senior politician? Someone in the media? The bigger the name, the greater the likelihood that someone will take offence turn to their lawyers or go public and damage wiki. Finally, how do we stop Michael doing this and so potentially doing wiki damage? I have in the meantime removed all reference to Ahmed Best and Star Wars from the [[User:Jar Jar Binks]] page and protected the page to prevent Michael reinserting it. As of now, all the page does is use the user name in isolation, which should kill off any danger of copyright breach. Because Ahmed Best, Equity or Lucasfilm does not act in this case does not mean that if Michael continues to use real names of prominent people someone, next week, next month or tomorrow will not react. We need to know what if any legal problems could arise, and what PR problems could arise, should Michael continue on this course. And we need to find some way of stopping Michael before Michael seriously damages wiki. JT PS: The great thing about Ireland is that it is so small we all tend to know each other (or know someone who knows someone who . . . ) If Michael uses Bono's name, I'll have a word with him and try to stop him from suing wiki. (I know his wife Ali!) :-) _________________________________________________________________ The new MSN 8: advanced junk mail protection and 2 months FREE* http://join.msn.com/?page=features/junkmail