[Wikipedia-l] Two issues here:

Sat May 17 18:29:54 UTC 2003

Axel Boldt wrote:

>--- Daniel Mayer <maveric149 at yahoo.com> wrote:
>
>>Tomos wrote:
>>
>>>Similar things, but with different conditions, would apply for
>>>admins of other language-wikis. So, sometimes, even if the content 
>>>is perfectly legal to host in a U.S. server, it would have to be
>>>deleted by an admin in another country.
>>>
>>Uh, no. The /only/ thing that counts is the legality of having 
>>the material on  a server in the US. What is legal for the user 
>>to submit to Wikipedia is entirely up to the individual user, his 
>>or her nation and the amount of risk the user is willing to take. 
>>
>>The /only/ laws that matter here are the ones of California and the
>>US. So if the material violates California and US law, /then/, and 
>>only then, can it be deleted on legal grounds. 
>>
>
>If I understood Tomos correctly, his point was this: a user posts
>material to Wikipedia in violation of his country's laws, but not in
>violation of US/CA laws. Somebody from that country notices the
>violation, complains to an admin from that country and demands the
>removal of the material. If the admin doesn't comply, they could
>conceivably become liable under the laws of their own country.
>
This is the way I understood Tomos's point, and I don't think Mav 
misunderstood it either.  I agree with Mav's analysis, and the only 
thing that would change that would be to have the server in an other 
jurisdiction.

GNU-FL issues and our principle that the user does not own the content 
also play a role.  The contributor's ownership ends when he presses 
"save".  At that point the legal jurisdiction is transferred from the 
user's country to the server's country, so where is the admin's liability.

Suppose too that the admin does comply with the demand (and there is no 
question about liability in the server country).  I, as resident of a 
third country or even of the server country, can revert the deletion. 
 What liability would then exist in the country of the original 
contributor and administrator?

Ec