Wikipedia ordered by judge to break confidentiality of contributor

[Algorem]

Source: telegraph.co.uk

A senior judge has ordered Wikipedia, the online encyclopedia, to disclose the identity of one of its contributors after a mother and her young child pleaded for help in identifying an alleged blackmailer.

By Andrew Pierce
Published: 2:40PM GMT 02 Dec 2009

In the first case of its kind, Mr Justice Tugendhat ordered Wikipedia’s parent company, Florida-based Wikimedia Foundation Inc, to disclose the computer identity, known as an IP address, of one of its registered users.

The judge acted after hearing that the mother, who is well known in the business world, had received anonymous letters threatening to disclose to the media details of her professional life and expenses.

The mystery Wikipedia user made an “amendment” to the mother’s entry, also referring to her young child, and disclosing confidential and “sensitive” information about them. The businesswoman believes the Wikipedia contributor and the author of the anonymous letters are the same person...

Last month it emerged that computers linked to politicians and large companies had made sweeping edits of Wikipedia to rewrite or erase embarrassing...



Read more: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/technology/wikipedia/6710237/Wikipedia-ordered-by-judge-to-break-confidentiality-of-contributor.html

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

1. That is proper. One IP, needed in one criminal investigation.

No privacy issues that I can see.

[Lance_Boyle]

2. Agreed, but I imagine the IP will be useless to the investigation

unless the suspected blackmailer is criminally incompetent.

[apnu]

3. It has been my expirence that most users of the Internet are incompetent (nt)

[Commie Pinko Dirtbag]

4. Many are. Gotta try.

Needs hour and minute of access, too, so the identity can be coaxed from the ISP in case of dynamic IPs. But that's in the public Wikipedia page histories.