Wikipedia:No legal threats: Difference between revisions
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Remove all of my edits here or you will face a huge legal threat due to copyright violations |
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{{dablink|"WP:LEGAL" redirects here. You may be looking for [[Wikipedia:Legal disclaimer]].}} |
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{{shortcut|WP:NLT|WP:LEGAL|WP:THREAT|WP:LAWSUIT}} |
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{{legal policy}} |
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{{Policy in a nutshell|If you have a dispute with the community or its members, use [[WP:Dispute resolution|dispute resolution]]. If you do choose to use legal action or threats of legal action to resolve disputes, you will not be allowed to continue editing until it is resolved and your user account or [[IP address]] may be [[Wikipedia:block|blocked]]. A polite report of a legal ''problem'' such as defamation or copyright infringement is not a threat and will be acted on quickly.}} |
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{{legal policy list}} |
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[[Image:No legal threats.png|right|165px|thumb|Use [[Wikipedia:Resolving disputes|'''dispute resolution''']] rather than legal threats!]] |
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Rather than immediately threatening to employ [[litigation]], you should always first attempt to resolve disputes using Wikipedia's [[Wikipedia:Dispute resolution|dispute resolution]] procedures. |
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If you must take legal action, we cannot prevent you from doing so. However, it is required that you do not edit Wikipedia ''until the legal matter has been resolved'' to ensure that all legal processes happen via proper legal channels. You should instead '''contact the person or people involved directly''', by [[Wikipedia:E-mailing users|email]] or through any other contact methods the user provides. If your issue involves Wikipedia itself, you should contact Wikipedia's parent organization, the [[foundation:Contact us|Wikimedia Foundation]]. Do not issue legal threats on Wikipedia pages. |
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If you make legal threats or take legal action over a Wikipedia dispute, you may be [[Wikipedia:Blocking policy|blocked]] from editing so that the matter is not exacerbated through other channels. Users who make legal threats will typically be blocked from editing while legal threats are outstanding. |
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Legal threats should be reported to [[Wikipedia:Administrators' noticeboard/Incidents]] or an [[Wikipedia:Administrators|administrator]]. |
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==What is not a legal threat== |
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'''A [[Wikipedia:Civility|polite]], coherent complaint in cases of copyright infringement or attacks''' is not a "[[legal threat]]". |
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If you are the owner of copyrighted material which has been inappropriately added to Wikipedia, a clear statement about whether it is licensed for such use is welcome and appropriate. You may [[Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Copyright|contact the information team]], contact the Wikimedia Foundation's [[foundation:designated agent|designated agent]], or use the procedures at [[Wikipedia:Copyright problems]]. |
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[[Wikipedia:Libel|Wikipedia's policy on defamation]] is to immediately delete [[Defamation|libelous material]] when it has been identified. If you believe that you are the subject of a libelous statement on Wikipedia, please contact the information team at {{NoSpamEmail|info-en|wikimedia.org}}. |
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==Perceived legal threats== |
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{{details|Wikipedia:Harassment#Perceived legal threats}} |
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It is important to refrain from making comments that others may reasonably ''understand'' as legal threats, even if the comments are not intended in that fashion. |
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A perceived legal threat is not an immediately blockable offense. Instead, admins have to seek for clarification of the situation. |
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==Background to the policy== |
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===Rationale for the policy=== |
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While you may sue in a court of law, Wikipedia is not the place for legal disputes. Making legal threats is [[Wikipedia:Civility|uncivil]] and causes a number of serious problems: |
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* It severely [[chilling effect (term)|inhibits free editing]] of pages, a concept that is absolutely necessary to ensure that Wikipedia remains neutral. Without this freedom, we risk one side of a dispute intimidating the other, thus causing a [[systemic bias]] in our articles. |
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* It creates bad feelings and a lack of trust amongst the community, damaging our ability to proceed quickly and efficiently with an assumption of mutual good faith. |
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* We have had bad experiences with users who have made legal threats in the past. By making legal threats, you may damage your reputation on Wikipedia. |
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Attempting to resolve disputes using the [[Wikipedia:Dispute resolution|dispute resolution]] procedures will often lead to a solution without resorting to the law. If the dispute resolution procedures do not resolve your problem, and you then choose to take legal action, you do so in the knowledge that you took all reasonable steps to resolve the situation amicably. |
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==Conclusion of legal threat== |
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The Wikipedia community has a long-standing general principle that (almost) anyone is capable of reform. Accordingly, statements made in anger or misjudgment should not always be held against people for the rest of their lives once genuinely and credibly withdrawn. |
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This policy removes an editor who makes legal threats to prevent damage or deterioration to the project. The editor is not blocked just because "it's a legal threat", but rather because: |
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# It reduces scope for escalation of a bad situation, |
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# It reduces stress and administrative burden on the wiki, |
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# It reduces disruption to articles and the editorial environment, |
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# It prevents the difficult situation where a person is both seeking to be collaborative partner and also setting themselves up as litigious adversary (in general those two roles are mutually exclusive). |
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If these conflicts are in fact resolved (or a [[WP:CONSENSUS|consensus]] is reached to [[WP:AGF|test]] if they are resolved), then involved editors should be unblocked if there are no other issues that warrant a block. |
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Remember that a legal complainant may be someone who is genuinely hurt or upset. If someone is blocked for legal threats it is important to ensure that any possible factual basis for such a threat is not ignored or obscured. They should be instructed how to communicate with Wikipedia to correct errors, a link to [[Wikipedia:Contact us/Article problem/Factual error (from subject)]] may be appropriate. Blocking admins should watch (or get others to watch) the user's talk page and encourage the user to identify any specific, verifiable factual errors in any article at issue; assisting with such errors is part of the core mission of [[WP:NPOV|neutral point of view]] and does not equate to proxying for banned editors. Repeats of legal threats on the user's talk page have limited scope for disruption or chilling effect and the user should not be prevented from using their talk page for communication until reasonable attempts have been made to open a civil discussion. Remember that the aim of this policy is to contain the effects of legal threats, not to prevent article subjects or their representatives from having bad content fixed. As usual we [[WP:AGF|assume good faith]] while containing disruption. As usual, the assumption of good faith is not a suicide pact and persistent or vexatious complaints may indeed lead to the user being banned and prevented from editing their talk page, but this is a last resort. |
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==See also== |
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{{Spoken Wikipedia|Nolegalthreats.ogg|2007-12-09}} |
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*[[Wikipedia:WikiBullying]] |
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*[[Wikipedia:Don't overlook legal threats]] |
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*[[meatball:LegalThreat]] |
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{{Wikipedia policies and guidelines}} |
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[[Category:Wikipedia user conduct]] |
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[[Category:Wikipedia legal policy]] |
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[[ar:ويكيبيديا:لا تهديدات قضائية]] |
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[[bg:Уикипедия:Никакви правни заплахи]] |
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[[cs:Wikipedie:Žádné právní výhrůžky]] |
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[[es:Wikipedia:No amenaces con acciones legales]] |
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[[fr:Wikipédia:Pas de menace de poursuites judiciaires]] |
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[[ko:위키백과:법적 조치에 대한 분쟁]] |
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[[is:Wikipedia:Engar lögsóknir]] |
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[[it:Wikipedia:Nessuna minaccia legale]] |
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[[he:ויקיפדיה:טיפול באיומים משפטיים]] |
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[[lt:Vikipedija:Grasinimas teisinėmis priemonėmis]] |
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[[hu:Wikipédia:Tartózkodj a jogi fenyegetésektől!]] |
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[[nl:Wikipedia:Niet dreigen met juridische actie]] |
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[[ja:Wikipedia:法的な脅迫をしない]] |
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[[pt:Wikipedia:Não proferir ameaças legais]] |
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[[ru:Википедия:Не угрожайте судебными исками]] |
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[[sk:Wikipédia:Žiadne právne hrozby]] |
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[[sr:Википедија:Без правних претњи]] |
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[[sv:Wikipedia:Hota inte med att stämma]] |
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[[chr:WP:NLT]] |
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[[tr:Vikipedi:Yasal tehditler yasak]] |
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[[zh:Wikipedia:不要訴諸法律威脅]] |
Revision as of 12:13, 5 March 2010
Remove all of my edits here or you will face a huge legal threat due to copyright violations