Pro golfer Fuzzy Zoeller is teed off over what he calls defamatory statements about him on Wikipedia.
But instead of suing the popular online reference site, Zoeller is taking a swing at a Miami company. In a lawsuit filed last week in Miami-Dade Circuit Court, Zoeller -- suing under the name John Doe -- alleged the statements were posted from a computer belonging to Josef Silny & Associates.
Zoeller's attorney, Scott D. Sheftall of Miami, said he had to sue the company because he can't sue Wikipedia. Federal law says ``no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as publisher or speaker of any information provided by another.
rogerd
1:58 am on Feb 26, 2007 (gmt 0)
I just saw this on a news site. Overall, I think it's a positive story. First, Fuzzy isn't going after Wikipedia, but rather the perpetrator of the (apparently) false posting. Second, it's good to see posters held accountable for their actions. Community operators should applaud this suit.
KenB
2:20 am on Feb 26, 2007 (gmt 0)
While there are incidents where anonymity is important (e.g. where political persecution is a real threat), 99% of the stuff posted on Wikipedia should not be anonymous. People need to be accountable for what they post. Most of the time, if you don't want to put your name to what it is you write it probably shouldn't be published. Yes there are exceptions to this, but those are very rare exceptions and this obviously wasn't one of those incidents.
rogerd
2:50 pm on Feb 26, 2007 (gmt 0)
KenB, I agree that Wikipedia might benefit from visible authorship using real, verified names. Wikipedia is different from most communities in that it is trying to be an authoritative resource. A forum like this one, on the other hand, makes no such direct claim and relies on the evolution of a discussion to produce answers (and often multiple viewpoints that the reader can evaluate for himself).
