[WikiEN-l] Controversial user nicknames

Wed Aug 27 21:17:20 UTC 2003

GFDL Sec. 4(B) states at least five of the major authors, so if someone is
the
major contributor and their name is not listed well, it does not matter
how many users make subsequent edits, that original major contributor
will have to be cited, otherwise whoever uses it will be subject to a
lawsuit for violation of the copyright license as granted.

Wouldn't that be interesting, user:Saddam Hussein suing some publisher
for not using his pseudonym in violation of a copyleft license. Of course
sometimes courts will find something so offensive as to not enforce the
law. I recall a California publicity rights case of a dildo that was cast
from a porn star's penis and the judge in that case refused to recognize
that the "owner" of the penis had any rights to prevent a casting of it
from being used without compensation. Perhaps that is the defense to
use if one refuses follow the attribution rules under the GDFL for
offensive names. Even though IAAL I cannot guarantee such an
outcome, it would be an interesting case, I wonder if user:SH would
be game to file such a suit should the occasion arise? Might be
interesting publicity for Wikipedia! (Just joking)
Alex756
----- Original Message ----- 
From: "Delirium" <delirium at rufus.d2g.com>

> >
> It's quite possible I'm wrong on that point; I should've qualified it.
> It was a guess based on some previous discussion both here and on the
> village pump.  The main problem I see with crediting individual authors
> is that it greatly dilutes credit.  Someone could publish an
> encyclopedia that's 1/4 other content and 3/4 Wikipedia content, and as
> long as they credited five random authors for each article, they could
> publish it without ever mentioning Wikipedia, instead only mentioning
> "User:145.223.22.5" and "User:Saddam Hussein" and so on as authors.  If
> they wished to purposely deny credit as much as possible, they could
> even go through and prefer to list IP addresses rather than user
> accounts where possible, since the GFDL lets them list any five authors
> of their choosing.
>
> -Mark