[WikiEN-l] Michael claiming identity of actor Ahmed Best

Sun Jul 6 22:14:39 UTC 2003

>Geoff Burling wrote
>
>Here we face another problem: why can't we trust that if someone says
>she/he is a celebrity, that person is telling the truth? After all, 
>celebrities
>*do* participate on the Internet (Wil Wheaton is one example, but the woman
>who used the name Brandy Alexander in several porn movies also was a 
>regular
>on alt.sex.movies for many years.) And I hope that some of these actors &
>actresses eventually come to Wikipedia & make useful contributions.
>
>I'd recommend that we trust people to be whom they say they are: if
>someone creates the user account of Jennifer Lopez or Gus van Sant (for
>example), we take them at face value until it's clear that they aren't
>whom they say they are (e.g. "Jennifer Lopez" doesn't understand Spanish,
>or "Gus van Sant" clearly has never been to Portland, Oregon in his life),
>at which point they are told to change their user name or face being
>banned.
>
>Otherwise, we trust that Equity will tell us when someone is not one of
>these celebrities, & require better documentation that Equity is whom
>they say they are (e.g., a certified letter with a lawyer's letterhead with
>a valid phone number will always trump email), & give the user the choice
>of either changing their username (unless it's clear that they have been
>a nuisence in more ways than this) or be banned. There's an infinite
>number of possible usernames out there: I see no profit to Wikipedia in
>condoning identify theft.

In normal circumstances I agree that we should trust someone until proven 
otherwise. However in Michael's case, his behaviour is such that it becomes 
obvious almost immediately that it is him. In the circumstances  as we know 
Ahmed Best  /isn't/ Ahmed Best but Michael, we cannot sit back and allow 
Michael to steal Best's name, nor anyone else's, not least because that 
would place /us/ in legally complicated waters, if by our inaction though we 
knew the facts we allowed the defamation of someone, the theft of a 
trademark, on wiki. And and anyone who has ever clashed with them on such 
issues knows, Equity and Lucasfilm do not tend to politely ask you why did 
you let this happen. They use the law, and they have some of the best 
lawyers at their disposal.

As so often unfortunately Michael is a unique case. While in the case of 99% 
of wiki users we can give them the benefit of the doubt, there are clearly a 
small but dangerous number of people (Michael & DW being two examples 
currently but more will no doubt arise in the future) where past history 
shows they will simply use our tolerance as a means to damage wiki.

JT

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