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Acquittal of German Wikipedia

Posted by Zonk on from the encyclopedia-of-everything-keeps-keeping-on dept.

Rock-n-Rolf writes "In a previous story Slashdot reported that the German Wikipedia was threatened with injunction. The court has now ruled, as reported in German magazine Spiegel, and Wikipedia is likely to remain online (Babelfish translation). The dispute was about Wikipedia publishing the real name of a dead hacker in an article, and the parents objected to this."

6 of 92 comments (clear)

  1. Now would be a good time... by greppling · · Score: 4, Insightful
    ...to remove the name from article, IMHO. It was important to defend the right to give the name. But the name does not add anything to the article, and if it hurts the feeling of those closely involved, there is a good case for not mentioning it.

    Just because you CAN mention the name, this doesn't mean you have to.

    1. Re:Now would be a good time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

      How is someone's real name not relevant to an article about that person? You can't change history just because you are ashamed of your son.

  2. It's a basic policy not anything evil! by ami-in-hamburg · · Score: 4, Informative

    Um, actually, there is stuff in the media all the time about the Nazi regime including TV, documentaries, news articles, etc...

    Now back on topic, it is a German policy not to use the last name of any person involved in legal matters.

    Newscaster: "Today, Santa C. was arrested on child pr0n charges in Berlin. Santa C. claims to be innocent of the crimes."

    That's just the way they do things here. It seems to apply to certain other situations as well but I haven't been able to find the particulars.

    Perhaps it has something to do with the public information laws or some such nonsense but I see it every night on the 6pm broadcast.

    1. Re:It's a basic policy not anything evil! by pe1rxq · · Score: 4, Insightful

      It is because in some countries even criminals (or in your example only accused) have rights.
      When they have served there sentence they should be able to go on and have a live.

      This is contrary to countries were sentences are not ment to correct ones behaviour but to ease the blood thirsty angry mob.

      --
      Secure messaging: http://quickmsg.vreeken.net/
    2. Re:It's a basic policy not anything evil! by ami-in-hamburg · · Score: 3, Informative

      Ok, I looked this up in the German laws. I could only find it in German so I won't bother with a link.

      Apparently, there has always been an absolute right of a person to protect their honor, reputation, and likeness. However, in 1954 it was written into German law. "Persönlichkeit Rechte" "Personal Rights"

      The laws are extremely long and complicated but I was able to find a summary at www.anwalt.de. Anwalt is German for attorney. It would seem that the first initial of the last name is used in order to protect the identity of persons in many situations.

      In this case, a legal matter, it's used to protect the person directly involved in the case so that they can't be targeted by vigilantes or snuffing a witness. It can also be admitted to protect the identity of the family members as well.

      I have also seen this applied to people who have already been convicted so I'm not sure what all the details are concerning when a full last name may or may not be used in public media. I have seen TV reports where the person was sentenced and the news reported the sentencing using only the initial.

  3. Instead of a translation: by greppling · · Score: 4, Informative
    Some facts from the article not mentioned in the summary:

    This decision isn't final yet, the parents will most likely appeal.

    The crucial argument in the court's decision seems to have been that the personal rights of the parents were not violated, since they could not be identified by their last name. This is actually disputable, their name is pretty unique in Germany. (A search in the phone directory didn't turn up anyone with the name.)

    The court did not consider the mentioning of the name a violation of Tron's own personal rights.

    ("Personal rights" is my translation by me of "Persoenlichkeitsrechte", which is technical term in German law speak. Maybe "Right to personal privacy" would be a better translation.)