Wikipedians have removed or restricted information in the past. Wikipedia’s founder, Jimmy Wales, personally appealed to editors to keep off the site any information about the kidnapping of David Rohde, a Times reporter seized by the Taliban in Afghanistan, until his escape.
Godwin noted there were more than 12 million articles on Wikipedia and just 30 paid employees of the foundation, who largely maintain the software and run the computer servers.
“We have one guy who handles legal complaints,” he said. “Me.”
The idea that this small crew could police such vastness “does not scale,” he said.
Werle was released from prison in 2007 and Lauber last year.
Stopp contacted Wikimedia about both men, citing cases since 2006 that had suppressed publication of their names in Germany. He has won a default judgment against Wikimedia for Lauber in a German court, and last month sent the foundation a letter regarding Werle, whose case against Wikimedia is pending.
“The German courts, including several courts of appeals, have held that our client’s name and likeness cannot be used anymore in publication regarding Sedlmayr’s death,” he wrote.
The letter included a sample agreement in which the organization would remove Werle’s name from the article or pay a “contractual fine” of no less than 5,100 euros (US$7,600) — “for each case of infringement,” to compensate him for “all loss and emotional suffering incurred” because of prior publication.
In a written response to Stopp, Wikimedia questioned the relevance of any judgments in the German courts, since, it said, it has no operations in Germany and no assets there.
“We’ll see,” Stopp said in an interview.
In an e-mail message after the interview, he wrote, “In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients’ names in your article.”
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