Tony Sidaway wrote:
Ray Saintonge said:
If Mr. Wollmann thinks that he has a case let him
go ahead with it, and
show us that he means more than simply to intimidate. We can easily
promise that when we receive the court documents in the case we will
reconsider our position in the matter. This may or may not result in a
removal of what he finds offensive from the site. Meanwhile it will
have been very costly for him to mount his case with no prospects of
recovering those costs.
Well, Wikipedia probably wouldn't be vulnerable, but where individuals are
involved he could get a default judgement in a plaintiff-friendly UK court
for a no-show defendant in the US, with costs awarded (which is very
common in UK cases), and then use that as leverage in the US. This
technique has been tried against Usenet posters and worked well. Since
Wikipedia content is produced by individuals who are often identifiable it
would probably work as well on Wikipedia.
He may have to demonstrate standing to sue in UK courts, but that could be
as simple as selling books through Amazon.co.uk--which Wollmann does, as
it happens.
I'm not familiar with the Usenet cases, so I can't comment on what they
mean.
Correct me if I'm wrong on this, but I thought that Wohlmann was a UK
resident. If so his selling books through Amazon.co.uk should only be a
secondary issue.
Defaulting would not be a preferred option, but that too would depend on
just what he is asking. Assuming that the defendant is a US person, he
too should be able to receive an award of costs including travel costs.
Perhaps he could be asked to pay conduct money or post a bond for costs
of attending. It would be refundable to him if he wins the case.
Ec