Wikipedia Cleared of Defamation
Lawyer for parent foundation worried about impact of recently dismissed lawsuit
By JACKSON WEST
Updated 2:30 PM PST, Fri, Aug 7, 2009
Literary agent Barbara Bauer wasn't happy about being called the "dumbest" of agents on a list title "20 Worst Literary Agents" posted to Wikipedia.
So Bauer sued the San Francisco-based Wikimedia Foundation, which oversees the website, for defamation -- even though an unaffiliated user of the online encylopedia was ultimately reponsible for creating and posting the item.
And as a University of Santa Clara law professor pointed out, Bauer may have simply proven the poster's point in filing the suit.
However, a lawyer for the Wikimedia Foundation, Mike Godwin, took the lawsuit seriously, and mandated that the article, since deleted and replaced by a shorter version, not reappear.
Godwin should know better -- after all, he was the sage who noted that "As [an online] discussion grows longer, the probability of a comparison involving Nazis or Hitler approaches 1."
In other words, according to Godwin's Law, defamation is practically built into the system -- hence the liability exemption.
Photo by Dave Winer.
Jackson West hopes former literary agent John Hodgman catches wind of this case, as it would make a good Daily Show segment.
Copyright NBC Local Media
First Published: Aug 7, 2009 1:33 PM PST
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