German Wikipedia Threatened w/ Injunction

TheEagleCD writes "Wikipedia.de, the German version of the popular Wikipedia Encyclopedia, is currently closed due to a German court order. A detailed account of the current controversy [en.wikipedia.org] is available, the short version is that the family of "Tron" (Boris Floricic) - a German hacker and phreaker - is trying to force Wikipedia.de from removing the family name from his entry." As I write this the site is back up, as is the tron entry that caused the whole mess. However it does appear that the entire domain was briefly shut down over one entry.

Comments

Wikiopinions

[Anonymous Coward]

Why do people insist on thinking wikipedia is based on facts? Everyone should know by now that this is just the new home of all the old school usenet trolls! Wikiwasteoftime if ya ask me...

Germany has a history of anti free speech rulings.

[Anonymous Coward]

Germany regularly arrests people who express racial opinions or present alternative accounts of the holocaust, so seeing German courts pull crap like this doesn't surprise me.

Eh, wikipedia's gone down hill anyways.

[DA-MAN]

http://digg.com/technology/Wikipedia_Admin_says_on ly_Wiki_Admin_s_can_comment_on_process

"The deletion process is designed to determine the consensus of opinion of Wikipedia editors; for this reason comments from users whose histories do not show experience with or contributions to Wikipedia are traditionally given less weight and may be discounted entirely."

What's the point of having a wikipedia if only wiki editors are allowed to comment anyways. . .

Re:If they can do this over the issue of a name

[drinkypoo]

Now, I'm no expert on Germany - about as close as I get is that I'm about a quarter german, maybe more, which means jack diddly. But it seems to me that they're a nation in denial. Their utter lack of freedom of speech strikes me as particularly gestapo-esque (Say the wrong thing, and we'll put you away!) and instead of having an open forum to discuss what happened with the whole WWII thing they seem to be trying to bury it. I can't see how that wouldn't keep the nation's whole mentality in a seriously fucked up state.

Re:OK, I'll bite

[Anonymous Coward]

Shut the fuck up, Jew.

Re:WTF?

[drinkypoo]

Interestingly, I said up front that I was purely speculating, and yet you still felt a need to vent your spleen on me. However, there are many laws controlling speech about Nazism in Germany. The press is free - unless you want to say certain things about Nazism. Which means it's not free. Exceptions are a bitch.