--- Jiong Sheng <sheng.jiong(a)gmail.com> wrote on Wikipedia-l:
Now I think if the ban is still not lifted for another
week, we shall
have a press release about this. I agree with mav that if the whole
world knows about it Chinese government will lift the ban, just like
what it did to Google in 2002.
I know at least Slashdot will cover the story. But whether or not the story
goes beyond that is up to the news cycle at the time.
We do need to confirm that this is
1) real
2) not a mistake
Otherwise we could be creating a lot of bad press for ourselves (I don't
believe in the adage that there is no such thing as bad press). If we do this
right, then we could at the very least garner a great deal of public support
and increased awareness of the project. Hopefully that will be enough to shame
the PRC into lifting the block. It is sad to think that the recent good press
about the Chinese Wikipedia may have been what brought the PRC's attention to
us.
Another possible choice is to consult a lawyer in PRC.
There was a
case last December, when a Hong Kong reporter brought a political
magazine into mainland and was confiscated by the Custom. He sued the
local government and won the case. I believe that we have to fight for
this freedom. If we keep quiet then they will never lift the ban.
Lawyers are expensive (even pro-bono ones). So I hope this does not come to
that. We could set up a Wikimedia legal defense fund to help pay the expenses
of pro-bono lawyers if the need arises though.
-- Daniel Mayer (aka mav)
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