I don't think there is any need to ask a lawyer, regardless of
whether a legal cause of action would exist, anyone misusing the
checkuser function is responsible for foreseeable damage whether or
not there is any legal forum available or any practical way to seek
redress. This especially applies to those logging in from countries
with inadequate practical guarantees of personal liberty. One might
be able to raise a legal defense, but there is no moral defense.
Fred
On Nov 14, 2005, at 11:13 AM, Anthere wrote:
Sean Barrett wrote:
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Chris Jenkinson stated for the record:
Kelly Martin wrote:
On 11/13/05, Chris Jenkinson
<chris(a)starglade.org> wrote:
> What would happen if either of you (Kelly or Sean) disclosed
> private
> information into the public domain? Aside from ethical
> concerns, what
> prevents you from doing this?
>
At work or on Wikipedia?
At work, I would risk being fired, sued, and possibly prosecuted.
On Wikipedia? It would be wrong. It would also be breaking
several
promises I've made.
As both of you would face legal recourse if you were to divulge
private
information in your day jobs, what do you think the opposition to
having
a comparable legal agreement between the Foundation and people with
checkuser is due to, given that the situation is reasonably similar?
The situation is not reasonably similar; it's not even remotely
similar.
Disclosure of the information I handle at work would immediately and
directly endanger lives and damage national security, and I am rather
well paid for accepting the responsibility.
Disclosure of a Wikipedian's IP address can only lead to harm through
tortuous chains of unlikely happenstance, and the privilege of
contributing to Wikipedia's success is not sufficient compensation to
persuade me to accept the possibility of a prison term.
In case you are not aware of it, Yahoo recently helped the chinese
government to uncover a chinese "dissident" and this lead the guy
to prison. Have no doubts that some of our participants, in
particular those from certain regions, or those participating to
wikinews, are at the same amount of risk. *You* could yourself
directly endanger a life in giving private information. I hope that
in spite that you do not receive a sufficient financial
compensation, you will be careful. I think feeling less
responsability due to the fact you are not paid is not a very good
approach of the tool.
Aside from this point, the question of what would happen if Sean or
Kelly or anyone with the tool would release private information to
the public is a good question.
They would lose access to the tool certainly. Very likely, they
would lose position at the arbcom. Aside from this, I suppose that
anyone having private information released by a person without a
good reason (such as protecting our network) have the opportunity
to sue Sean, Kelly or whoever on top of suing the Foundation.
Maybe a question to ask a lawyer ?
Ant
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