Wikipedia Foundation Wins Landmark Case

By Greg McNevin

November 5, 2007: In a landmark decision, a French court has ruled that Wikipedia cannot be held responsible for content published on its service by its users.

The online encyclopedia, which is written, edited and updated by thousands of contributors around the world, was taken to court in France by three men seeking damages for their homosexuality being published online.

According to an AFP report, the men sought EU69,000 (AU$108,300) for invasion of privacy when details of their sexuality were posted in a short-lived anonymous article on the site. The judge rejected their claim, however, arguing that the Wikimedia Foundation’s (the not-for profit organisation behind Wikipedia and other “wiki” sites) responsibility for the content was not clearly established.

Due to its fundamental “anyone can add or edit” nature, Wikipedia is coming under increasing criticism about accuracy and information vandalism. While its many volunteer editors and its wider community of users are vigilant about its misuse, the Foundation itself does not control the content. It provides the open source tools and funding to run the service, while the wider community of users provide the content under a creative commons license.

The foundation is naturally quite pleased with the ruling, which could prove to have wider ramifications in the web 2.0 publishing world, perhaps by slowly taming the “wild west” of online publishing by determining who is not responsible for content rather than by who is.

“The decision is very clear and we appreciate the fact the court acknowledges our role as an Internet host, rather than an editor," said Wikimedia Foundation chairman, Florence Devouard to AFP.

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