On Fri, Dec 09, 2005, Uri Even-Chen wrote about "Re: [off topic] Wikipedia &
Jimmy Wales":
> If somebody registers "david-shay.co.il" and you want to register
> "shay-david.co.il" or "davidshay.co.il" or "david-shay.com" or anything
> similar, you're allowed to do so. Nobody will stop you. The only way
> to stop you is with legal means, such as an arbitration or court order.
> There are laws and there are ways to enforce the laws.
And these laws always seem to favor those who are strong, or have a lot
of money, not who is right. Forgive me if I don't join you (and Oleg) in
cheers for our (or perhaps, the American) legal system, where a guy molests
children can get away with it if he's famous enough and has 270 million
dollars to pour into his defence, and another guy can literally get away
with murder in criminal court, and yet be found guilty in a civilian court.
(for those who don't follow famous American cases, I referred to Michael
Jackson and O.J. Simpson respectively).
One of my random signatures defines it succinctly:
"Jury: Twelve people who determine which client has the better lawyer."
> But in Wikipedia, there are no laws. If a system administrator (esp. a
> strong one, such as David Shay or "Gilgamesh") doesn't like you for any
> reason - he can delete you, ban your username, ban your IP or just make
> your life miserable until you leave Wikipedia. Don't believe me? Try
> for yourself. Make them angry and see what happens.
Like I told you, in Wikipedia there are "laws", like there are in any
community. After you (or whoever you're retelling this story for) broke
the three-revert law, you apparently broke several other rules. One of them
is do not impersonate; You are free to be completely anonymous on Wikipedia,
but if you want to choose an identity, at least don't choose a confusing
one (choosing an *identical* name is not the only way to confuse).
Calling yourself "Shay David" when that is NOT your name and you only chose
it to cause confusion is a despised behavior in any civilized society,
as well as in Wikipedia. Imagine, for example, that you came to this list
(linux-il), calling yourself "Torvalds Linus" ("not" Linus Torvalds, but
Torvalds Linus). Don't you think this "trick" is going to annoy people?
And what gives you the right to annoy people??
And even if that was your *real* name, imagine this: a real person called
"Even-Chen Uri" joins a group that you were very active in. Wouldn't you
expect this new guy to agree to choose some sort of nickname, alias,
or address, which reduces confusion? If he doesn't do so, and even uses
the resulting confusion for his favor, then, well, he wouldn't have my
sympathy.
> By the way, a person (who's name is NOT Bruce Springsteen) registered
> the domain name <brucespringsteen.com>. Bruce Springsteen didn't like
> it and filed a complaint against him (UDRP). The arbitrators decided
> that the man is ALLOWED to keep the name. Read it:
And this proves that... ??? To me, it just proves that in America, lowlifes
and creeps can misuse the justice system to bully on other people. Someone
who was not strong enough as a kid to steal other kids' lunch money, grows
up and learns that he doesn't have to be strong, because he can (mis)use
the justice system to bully other people. He starts with squatting (of
physical property), cybersquatting (of "virtual property"), patent lawsuites,
and, if he really has the balls, suing IBM (I'm referring to SCO vs. IBM).
It is obvious that if a guy buys "brucespringsteen.com", he had no thought
in his mind other than to bully and extort money from Bruce Springsteen.
If you think that the legal system should help him in pulling off this
crime, then, good for you. I don't.
> My friend was so disappointed that he left Wikipedia. He didn't try to
> impersonate as David Shay or anybody else, he just used his name when he
> registered. But because of the reactions he decided to leave Wikipedia.
> I know quite a few people who left Wikipedia.
Look, I don't know David Shay and I'm not a Hebrew wikipedia contributer
(I only use and write on the English one). But generally, the people on
Wikipedia are reasonable. They won't accuse you of things like impersonation
unless you're really causing a mess. It's very easy for a guy called, by
pure chance, "Shay David", to convince he's not an impersonator if he does
useful edits and behaves like a "good guy". He could also show his good
faith by modifying his nickname to be less confusing (e.g., who said that
a nickname has to be your full name? What if your full name was already
taken?) But, if someone comes in with this confusing name and only does
very controversial edits, and begins edit wars and other "games" right
from the start, it won't be long before the Wikipedia society decides to
put a stop to this distraction and to expel him. It's the society's right
to protect itself.
--
Nadav Har'El | Saturday, Dec 10 2005, 9 Kislev 5766
[EMAIL PROTECTED] |-----------------------------------------
Phone +972-523-790466, ICQ 13349191 |What's the difference between roast beef
http://nadav.harel.org.il |and pea soup? Anyone can roast beef.
=================================================================
To unsubscribe, send mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] with
the word "unsubscribe" in the message body, e.g., run the command
echo unsubscribe | mail [EMAIL PROTECTED]
