Wikipedia Class action suit?
ZDNet’s the Open Source blog is talking about a possible Classaction suit against the wikipedia. He calls it the next SCO suit and summarizes things like this…
The SCO suits were an attempt to shut down open source based on the idea that everything is owned, or comes from something that is owned, and so the use of any code requires payment to someone.
While that lawsuit is winding down, a new threat is now emerging. It’s a class action against Wikipedia, aimed at ending open source information by demanding that “someone take responsibility” for everything published on the Web.
He notes that the recent “scandal” regarding John Seigenthaler gave much more “satisfaction” or remedy than if a reporter for a traditional newspaper had lied. The apology has given more coverage than the original article, the contributor that added the lie has been outed and ousted. The problem is this… there will always be inaccurate information. I remember once overhearing a conversation of two people on a University Campus discussing a news event. One was passing (wrong) information to the other and they were eating it up.
The only remedy to this is to use multiple sources for anything that you “consume” as a consumer of information. Cross check – is the wikipedia article on John Seigenthaler fairly consistent with other (respectable) sources on the same person?
Dana at the Open Source also suggests a business model for the wikipedia (advertising?) that would make a situation where editors could be paid, etc…