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German Killers Sue Wikipedia To Remove Their Names

Posted by Soulskill on from the aim-for-foot-and-pull-trigger dept.

Jason Levine writes "Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber killed a German actor in 1990. Now that they are out of prison, German law states that they can't be referred to by name in relation to the killings. Therefore, they have sued to get Wikipedia to remove their names from the Wikipedia article about the killings. The German edition of Wikipedia has already complied, but the English edition is citing US freedom of speech and a lack of presence in Germany as reasons why they don't need to remove the name. In a bit of irony, their lawyer e-mailed the NY Times: 'In the spirit of this discussion, I trust that you will not mention my clients' names in your article.'"

2 of 859 comments (clear)

  1. I feel inspired to change my SIG! by Picass0 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    Suck it, Germany!

  2. Re:Case in point by jim_v2000 · · Score: 1, Flamebait

    >they are better people now and wouldn't do the crime again.

    LOL...how can you ever know that? All you can know is that they murdered someone 19 years ago and haven't murdered anyone while they were locked away in prison. You have no idea whether or not they wouldn't do it again, but their past behavior points to them being capable of it.

    >German law is trying to protect them from people like you."

    Maybe German law should focus a bit more on protecting innocent people from getting murdered.

    >Yes, I know they killed someone. But they also served their sentence and now they should be given a second chance, whether YOU want to give them one or not.

    So when does that guy that they murdered get a second chance?

    --
    Don't take life so seriously. No one makes it out alive.