[Foundation-l] Re: Formal request: Wikinews project

Wed Oct 13 12:43:39 UTC 2004

Being judgement proof is not an option, what will happen is that they will
seize the servers and domain names and hold them hostage til we raise the
money to pay.

Fred

> From: Michael Snow <wikipedia at earthlink.net>
> Reply-To: Wikimedia Foundation Mailing List <foundation-l at wikimedia.org>
> Date: Tue, 12 Oct 2004 23:04:31 -0700
> To: foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> Subject: [Foundation-l] Re: Formal request: Wikinews project
> 
> Fred Bauder wrote:
> 
>> Anyone with a damages decree is going to levy on the servers and the domain
>> names.
>> 
>> 
> Sure, because those are the only assets we have. But looking at it from
> the other side of this hypothetical, would it be worth the plaintiff's
> effort to get a damages decree? Wikimedia is, just like many other
> entities in the open source world, a thinly capitalized nonprofit
> organization without any well-developed revenue stream. The servers
> aren't worth that much in the overall scheme of things - possibly not
> enough to cover even our own legal fees, or if we rely on pro bono
> assistance, the other side's lawyers. Plus they're hardware that
> depreciates rapidly. As for the domain names, most of their value exists
> because we own them. They'd have no value to the plaintiff except in a
> sale, and even that would probably be wiped out by the substantial fork
> that would promptly arise should any lawsuit actually bankrupt Wikimedia.
> 
> It only makes sense to go for damages if the defendant has the "deep
> pockets" to pay them. With us, the plaintiff's primary interest is
> likely to be a retraction and an injunction against continued
> publication of the offending material. If we find they actually have a
> case, it's much easier for everyone if we just withdraw the story and
> issue a retraction without all the litigation. Then we go on about our
> business, while the plaintiff gets to think, "Ha, I made them grovel and
> apologize, they'll tread very carefully if ever they write about me again."
> 
> The organizations that budget millions for legal defense do so because
> they have millions to protect. We may be getting up there in terms of
> visibility, but in economic terms we're still a very small fish indeed.
> 
> --Michael Snow
> _______________________________________________
> foundation-l mailing list
> foundation-l at wikimedia.org
> http://mail.wikipedia.org/mailman/listinfo/foundation-l