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Finnish Police Board Wants Justification For Wikipedia's Fundraising Campaign

Posted by timothy on from the citizens-united dept.

linjaaho writes "Yesterday, the admin list of Finnish language Wikipedia received a request for comment from the National Police Board of Finland. The Police Board claims that the fundraising message appearing on the top of the Wikipedia pages is illegal fundraising and is punishable by criminal law. The Police Board asks how much money have they raised and ask for justification for the campaign. This is not the first time the Police Board has attacked fundraising; in 2012, a crowdfunded textbook Kickstarter project was delayed by a similar request for comment."

10 of 252 comments (clear)

  1. wikipedia by CurryCamel · · Score: 5, Insightful

    That reminds me, I should make a donation.

    1. Re:wikipedia by MightyMartian · · Score: 3, Insightful

      It is getting a little annoying. We made our point (in spades I'd say). Dice knows full well if they pull a stunt like that again, they'll have another revolt. I'd say, for now, it's time to back off a little bit.

      --
      The world's burning. Moped Jesus spotted on I50. Details at 11.
    2. Re:wikipedia by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Basically this is all Tim Lord's doing. Guess he didn't want to just ride herd on Commander Taco's creation, so he's out to make his mark. (http://www.businessinsider.com/check-out-the-sleek-redesign-of-news-for-nerds-site-slashdot-2013-10)
      This is from the /. sales pitch that Tim (timothy) Lord made up. (http://slashdotmedia.com/about-slashdot-media/slashdot-org/)
      Lots of funny stuff in the slashdotmedia site. I wonder what Tim means by "our network"? (http://slashdotmedia.com/about-slashdot-media/whos-on-our-network/)
      I beginning to think that the pushing force behind this new "beta" design is not as much Dice Holdings as it is Tim Lord.
      Look Tim, no one comes here for the articles. We can (and do) read them for ourselves from sources such as The Register, TechCrunch, Techdirt, cNet, BBC, NYT, The Independent and dozens of other trade and science journals at least a day or more before they get to /., No we come here for the discourse and that and that alone is what drives the millions of page hits to the site.
      Anything that detracts or interferes with that discourse will drive millions of people away. The people that participate in that discourse are not an "audience". They are the existence of the site.
      And, oh, Just remember that the people who do drive this discourse pretty much built the Personal Computer business and the Internet and wrote the software that runs them. Do you really want to piss off so many people who have so much power?

    3. Re:wikipedia by The_Noid · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The beta looks pretty much the same as the last time you asked for feedback on it.
      What feedback did you get back then, and what did you do with it? Because the general impression is that you did nothing with it, and that is why people are angry.

      You should already have this information. You should be able to post, right now, what you did with the previous feedback and what you changed on the beta as a result, and which points you did not change, and why. This is data from months ago. Where is it? Why do you not publish it? Is it because you really didn't do anything with that feedback?

  2. Tyranny by MikeRT · · Score: 5, Insightful

    In Finland, it is illegal to plead with audience to raise funds without a special permission issued by the Police Board.

    If that is even half true, that's just tyrannical. Think about it. That means even a church in Finland doing disaster relief cannot call together a congregational meeting and ask for funds without getting a "by your leave, sire" from a bunch of police bureaucrats.

    1. Re:Tyranny by zieroh · · Score: 5, Insightful

      "Forcing" may be a problem, but generally the principle is that a possibly illegal action "happens" where it takes effect, so if people in Finland read the donation requests, then the Finnish police has the right and duty to act on it.

      So worst case, the Finnish police could ask Finnish ISPs to prevent access to a website that breaks the law in Finland.

      NO. This is not just wrong, it's also incredibly stupid. Think about what you're saying: If every website must comply with every law in every country where the website can be seen, then we end up with a web that is the lowest common denominator of all the tyrannical laws in the world. A website in Finland does not get to dictate the terms of a website anywhere outside of Finland. Period.

      --
      People who say "sheeple" have about as much sophistication as an AOL user, and in fact are probably actually AOL users.
  3. Cut the "fuck beta" crap already by jones_supa · · Score: 5, Insightful

    People, shut the fuck up already. I hate the beta as much as the next guy, but we have seen enough of these "fuck beta" comments at this point. They do not change the situation right now in any meaningful way. You just make yourself look like an obsessed clown.

    1. Re:Cut the "fuck beta" crap already by arth1 · · Score: 1, Insightful

      Duh. I myself have expressed clearly enough my feelings towards beta. So have many others. Slashdot has clearly seen that feedback and already said "okay, okay, we got it!"

      Slashdot has seen it, but Slashdot management has already shown their unwillingness to admit failure.

      The question is whether it has bubbled up to the decision makers who can override Slashdot Media, like the advertisers, the top brass at Dice Holding and their owners, Atlantic Holding and the Quadrangle Group.
      A reaction has to be elicited. The hand has to be forced. Vague bromide non-promises from the lower end staff toeing the corporate line doesn't help - if anything it tells how much upper management in Slashdot are swimming with crocodiles, and that we need to shout loud enough to get attention from higher up.

  4. Stupid waste of taxpayer money by hydrofix · · Score: 4, Insightful

    As a Finnish taxpayer I am utterly frustrated by this. It seems like the work of an overly-enthusiastic police official. The Wikipedia fundraiser makes it very explicit that the funds are being collected by a non-profit organization incorporated in California, and subject only to their local laws. Although the fundraiser would be illegal in Finland as-is (Finnish law requires applying for a fundraising permit to discourage fraud), the police and the courts in Finland clearly lack jurisdiction against a U.S. non-profit. The police resources, which they claim to be very scarce due to recent cuts in public sector spending, would be much better spend investigating actual fraud and other crime, where the police and the courts actually have jurisdiction and means to prevent and stop the crime and bring the perpetrators to justice.

  5. Re:They could not get a permit even i they wanted by nurb432 · · Score: 4, Insightful

    I'm also sure the law is used to punish entities that they don't approve of.

    --
    ---- Booth was a patriot ----