[WikiEN-l] Discrimination on Wikipedia

Tue Dec 5 22:16:53 UTC 2006

Greg Kohs sent me a private reply in which he indicated that his
public replies were not getting through.  If a listadmin blocked him
from posting to the list, can someone tell him so affirmatively?

Thanks.

-george

On 12/5/06, George Herbert <george.herbert at gmail.com> wrote:
> Employees of public relations firms are not a protected class under US
> anti-discrimination law.
>
> Further, such employees, acting as individuals and not agents of their
> firms, are not restricted from editing Wikipedia.
>
> What's been banned is a certain class of commercial speech; no publisher,
> even an "open content" one, is mandated to accept all speech from anyone,
> and in particular the protections of commercial speech producers are far
> more easily legally restricted.
>
> This is a pretty weak legal claim, Greg.  Please stop wasting people's time.
>
>
> -george
>
> On 12/5/06, Gregory Kohs < thekohser at gmail.com> wrote:
> > Jim Schuler wisely stated:
> >
> > >Might depend on tax law.  If I remember correctly (it's been 15 years
> since
> > >I dealt with this), 501(c) and 501(c)(3) tax-exempt and private
> foundations
> > >can run afoul of the IRS if there is a clear indication of active
> > >discrimination.
> >
> > But then also stated:
> >
> > >In this case, I don't see any evidence of an active policy
> > >of discrimination...
> >
> > There actually *is* a fairly active policy of discrimination that's been
> > carried out for the
> > past few months.
> >
> > Employees of public relations firms are not allowed to edit Wikipedia.
> >
> > http://blog.bitepr.com/2006/08/jimmy_wales_on_.html
> >
> > The IRS and the appropriate Attorneys General will certainly get involved
> > when an
> > organization operating with tax-deductible funding begins to administer
> > itself in ways
> > that run contrary to its stated public mission.  The State of Florida's
> > Division of Consumer
> > Services was sufficiently concerned about Wikipedia's discrimination
> against
> >
> > commercial interests (in light of the GFDL explicitly stating the license
> > must not
> > limit commercial use of the work), that it contacted Brad Patrick in late
> > November.
> >
> > The earlier comment by Earle Martin that "Wikipedia is a
> privately-operated
> > members'
> > club" is a sad statement of empirical evidence that the Wikipedia
> leadership
> > has
> > clearly lost sight of its being a 501(c)(3) non-profit entity that goes
> well
> > beyond a
> > private club.
> >
> > (Still on a Wiki-break, but this list is just too fascinating.)
> >
> > --
> > Gregory Kohs
> > Cell: 302.463.1354
> > _______________________________________________
> > WikiEN-l mailing list
> > WikiEN-l at Wikipedia.org
> > To unsubscribe from this mailing list, visit:
> > http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/wikien-l
> >
>
>
>
> --
> -george william herbert
> george.herbert at gmail.com

-- 
-george william herbert
george.herbert at gmail.com