[Foundation-l] what do we do in the event the Foundation fails? - Re: Pol...

Thu Apr 19 00:13:22 UTC 2007

On 4/18/07, Florence Devouard <Anthere9 at yahoo.com> wrote:
> Kelly Martin wrote:
> And the short term realizable monetizable
> > value of Wikimedia's intellectual property is more than most of you on
> > this list can even begin to imagine.
> >
> > Kelly
>
> Can you develop that point Kelly ?

I thought I already did.  The wikipedia.org domain name could be
reduced to a seven figure sum of money, possibly even eight or nine
figure, in a matter of months.  Doing so certainly destroys the value
of the name, but to someone whose interest is short-term monetary
gain, that's of no concern.

The problem the Foundation faces is that it holds assets worth between
$100 million and $1 billion dollars, but those assets only retain
their value if they are not used.  There is no ready way to extract
value from those assets in the short term without seriously damaging
their long-term value.  As a result, the Foundation is in the
precarious position of defending an extremely valuable asset without
the resources to do so effectively.

If I were a plaintiff's attorney, I'd be dreaming up ways to sue the
Foundation, and looking for possible plaintiffs for such a lawsuit.
There's certainly no shortage of potential plaintiffs: the Foundation
has published countless defamations, and for a $100 million payoff,
I'm sure there's plenty of people willing to go head to head against
Section 230.

You need to circle the wagons, and do it now: if you don't, your days
-- and Wikipedia's -- are numbered.

Kelly