Restrictive Italian Law Prompts Wikipedia to Block Access to Site

Image via CrunchBaseProtesting a draft law that would require altering Website content within 48 hours without explanation based on a complaint of prejudice or bias, online encyclopedia Wikipedia has blocked access to its Italian version, the Montreal Gazette reported in an Agence France Presse wire story.

Beleaguered Italian Prime Minister Silvio Berlusconi's government endorsed the measure that mandates content change without verification, which Wikipedia attacked as "an unacceptable limitation" on its freedom. Intended to deter details about government-sanctioned wiretaps from appearing in the press, the draft law imposes a $14,000 fine and a one-month imprisonment on journalists who violate it, according to the Gazette article.

Wikipedia objects to the law's failure to provide for a third party who could judge whether the content at issue is damaging.

Federal Judge Stays Order Identifying Anonymous Wikipedia Editors in Trademark Infringement Case

Image via WikipediaUnited States District Court Judge for the District of Colorado Christine Arguello this week stayed a magistrate's order that would have required  Internet Service Provider Skybeam to disclose the identities of anonymous Wikipedia editors who claimed Facconable USA Corporation sympathized with a terrorist organization.

In Facconable USA Corporation v. John Does 1-10 (Case No. 1:11-cv-00941-CMA-BNB), the plaintiff, part of the M1 Group owned by Najib Makati, Lebanon's Prime Minister, sued anonymous posters who submitted an entry on the company's Wikipedia page alleging that Facconable USA Corp.'s parent M1 Group "is purported to be a strong supporter of Hezbollah," according to Courthouse News Service.  The plaintiff's 9-page complaint includes counts alleging a trademark infringement violation of the Lanham Act [15 U.S.C. sec. 1125(a)], trade libel and violation of Colorado's Consumer Protection Act [C.R.S. sec. 6-1-101 et seq.].

A magistrate granted plaintiff's request for expedited discovery, ordering ISP Skybeam to reveal the IP addresses identifying the anonymous posters by June 3.  Skybeam, assisted by Public Citizen, sought judicial review of the denial of their motion for a protective order.

Judge Arguello granted a stay of the magistrate's order, relying on four factors: 1)the likelihood of success of the ISP's appeal; 2)whether irreparable harm would occur if the stay were denied; 3)the absence of harm to opposing parties if the stay were granted and 4)the risk of harm to the public interest. Judge Arguello concluded the anonymous posters' First Amendment rights to speak anonymously would be compromised if the magistrate's order went forward, whereas the only harm to the plaintiff in allowing the stay would be a slight delay of its litigation.

Doctored Livingston (Profile) I Presume

Image by Getty Images via Daylife

Actor Ron Livingston, 42, best-known for his role as Peter in cult comedy "Office Space" (1999), has sued Wikipedia in Los Angeles Superior Court for libel, invasion of privacy, and appropriation because an unknown individual allegedly has repeatedly altered Livingston's Wikipedia page to suggest he is involved in a gay relationship with Hollywood casting director Lee Dennison, celebrity Web site TMZ reports.

The Cedar Rapids, Iowa, native, who married actress Rosemary DeWitt earlier this year, claimed the hacking of his Wikipedia page began in May. According to the Complaint, whenever the rumored relationship with Dennison was deleted, the anonymous hacker would restore it on Livingston's Wikipedia page.  The same individual purportedly created a false Facebook page suggesting that Livingston and Dennison were in a relationship.

Livingston, who appeared on several episodes of  "Sex and the City" as Sarah Jessica Parker's boyfriend, is currently filming "Dinner for Schmucks," according to the Internet Movie Database Web site.

London Gallery in Copyright Row with Wikipedia

Lawyers for The National Portrait Gallery in London have fired off a letter to the powers that be behind the Wikipedia encylopedia Web site, warning that England's copyright laws were breached when an individual downloaded more than 3,300 high resolution images of drawings, paintings and photographs from the Gallery's database and uploaded them into an archive of free-to-use images on Wikipedia.

Derrick Coetzee, the volunteer Wikipedia uploader who did the deed in March 2009, also uploaded the letter from the Gallery's counsel threatening suit for copyright infringement. Reproductions of works of art are not copyrightable in the U.S. where Coetzee resides, but such photos may be copyrighted under English law, the Copyright, Designs and Patents Act 1988.

The Wikimedia Foundation did not remove the images, despite being asked to do so by the Gallery's attorneys in April 2009.The Gallery's attorneys claim that Coetzee circumvented the technical measures put in place to protect the high resolution images. Though ordering in their letter that Wikipedia immediately expunge the purportedly purloined images from its Web site, the Gallery's attorneys left open the virtual door of possibly permitting Wikipedia to feature low resolution copies of the Gallery's exhibits.

Created in 2001, Wikipedia, a multi-lingual free-content based encyclopedia, boasts nearly 3 million articles and more than 850,000 uploaded files on its site as of July 15. The National Portrait Gallery dates back to 1856 and includes among its founding trustees former Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli and the Gallery's prime mover, the 5th Earl Stanhope.You can look it up at Wikipedia, but would be better off going to the Gallery's own Web site, www.npg.si.edu.