[Foundation-l] Re: Copyright and local liability (was: Emily Dickinson poems)

Tue Jun 7 07:53:34 UTC 2005

Hi. Just in case it helps, here is a non-lawyer's understanding of 
how Japanese Wikipedia is doing.

Japanese Wikipedia is operating under the assumption that troubles 
happening there could be taken to a Japanese court, and judged under 
Japanese law. (Some troubles could be taken to an American court 
in some cases, and American law could be applied.) It is also operating 
under the assumption that administrators could be held liable if 
they knowingly not delete illegal material. The Foundation is 
relatively safe, I suppose, except in the case that it is directly 
involved in posting of some illegal contents (a case not easy to 
imagine), or knowingly ignore some legitimate legal complaint. 

These assumptions are in my opinion widely held among Japanese 
Wikipedians, partly because discussion leading to the formation of 
these assumptions included people who were professionaly practicing 
law and studying law scholarly. There were discussions more than 
one time, regarding different cases. And if I understand it correctly, 
what you need to examine for your question is German law. Can German 
court take cases even when the servers and the official operating 
body of the project is in the U.S. ? Can German court apply German 
law ? Who can be held liable ? Answers are in German laws. Similarly, 
if you want to think about if some Wikipedian active on de.wikipedia 
could be sued in a Dutch court by another de.wikipedian living in 
the Neatherlands, I think you have to take a look at what Dutch 
law says. 

Overall, no, increasing presense of chapters do not increase risks 
of Japanese Wikipedians. The "local liability" has been already there 
even without a chapter. Creating a chapter is, in a way, creating a 
contact address for those who want to make legal complaint or threat. 
So in that practical sense, the risk may increase. But then, if 
the Foundation has enough money, they may be able to ask for legal 
help more easily. That would make a local project stronger, being 
able to deal troubles that individual wikimedian cannot handle 
properly. 

Now having servers everywhere is I think a different matter. That 
raises the question if people can bring lawsuit in those countries 
where servers are located. Maybe or maybe not. Again, it depends on 
the local laws. 

On top of all these, if the party sued is the Foundation, then 
perhaps we should think about if the German court's orders can be 
executed in the U.S., something that is determined by the U.S. 
law, I think. Similarly, some of the U.S. court's decisions may 
be rejected by Japanese Court and a ja.wikipedian living in 
Japan may be protected from it. 

==See also==

[[en:Private international law]]
[[en:Choice of law]]

Cheers, 

Tomos