wikipedia

Sitting on a train on my way home from Malmö. Tomorrow is going to be back and forth to Stockholm before the cool weekend conference FSCONS. For those of you who have not been paying attention this a bit of their blurb:

FSCONS 2008 is the first among many Free Society conferences that bridges the gap between free software and cultural freedom. Co-arranged by Free Software Foundation Europe, Creative Commons and Wikimedia Sverige, FSCONS 2008 is already a landmark event in bringing the different movements working for digital freedom together.

But seriously check out the schedule – the speakers promise to make this a special event. If you are in the area you should seriously consider showing up.

In the case of Bauer v. Wikimedia et al, a New Jersey judge has dismissed defamation claims against the operator of Wikipedia (ruling).

From the EFF blog:

This case began when literary agent Barbara Bauer sued Wikimedia, claiming the organization was liable for statements identifying her as one of the “dumbest of the twenty worst” agents and that she had “no documented sales at all.” EFF and the law firm of Sheppard Mullin Richter & Hampton represented Wikimedia, and moved to dismiss the case in May, arguing that under Section 230 of the Communications Decency Act, operators of “interactive computer services” such as Wikipedia cannot be held liable for users’ comments.

User generated sites are going to get (and have gotten) involved in defamation-like cases and it is necessary that the parent company should have some form of immunity even if such immunity can be abused. It’s nice to see that it worked in this case.

Another question is whether or not calling someone the “dumbest” can be considered to be defamatory at all…

Three more trains before FSCONS

Wikimedia not liable for online defamation