[WikiEN-l] Libel law

Thu Dec 8 01:09:43 UTC 2005

On 12/7/05, Ray Saintonge wrote:
> Anthony DiPierro wrote:
> > Steve Block wrote:
> > >No, but it would be nice to hear people's opinions, and also nice to
> > >hear if any legal opinion had been given to Wikipedia regarding this.
> >Under US law, we aren't liable for libellous statements that are made
> >by other people.  UK law might differ, but to the extent it does
> >that's not really all that interesting to most people on this list -
> >the foundation is a US company (with, according to Kelly Martin, no
> >legal presense in the UK).
> >
> It may come as a surprise to you, but many of us on the list are not
> Americans, and we find that kind of attitude deeply offensive.  It may
> be true enough that the specific provisions of UK law may not be
> interesting to most of us, but if you substite the Wikipedian's own
> country for UK the resulting total will not be insignificant.  This is
> precisely the kind of arrogant attitude that goes into the image of the
> "Ugly American".
>
Sorry.  I think I misunderstood the question.  I thought the "we" in
the question was Wikipedia.  But looking at it again, the concern
seemed to be more over the individual editors, so the "we" was
probably supposed to refer to individual UK citizens.

I hope you're not offended by the fact that I'm not interested in
this.  I have enough trouble just keeping myself informed on the laws
of Florida and the United States.  (Incidently, I was thinking about
starting a wikibook on US laws from a perspective of laws that
everyone living or visiting here should know: free speech, search and
seizure, copyright, the uniform commercial code, self defense and
excessive use of force, etc.  Anyone else interested in this?)