While it may be common for people to bring suits against bloggers, what happens if someone attempts to bring a lawsuit against an anonymous Wikipedia editor?
Attorney Susan Burke brought a defamation lawsuit to reveal two anonymous Wikipedia editors that stated that she had been sanctioned by a federal judge. The editors are identified by their usernames Zujua and CapBasics359. Zujua is fighting the subpoena and was responsible for the edit of Burke's Wikipedia page in 2012, and although CapBasics359 is still unknown, Burke's counsel is aware that CapBasics359 was previously logged in at a Starbucks in California.
While Burke states that her primary reason for bringing the suit is to discover who was editing her Wikipedia page with false information, Zujua's attorney, Christopher Hajec from the Center of Individual Rights claims that as a policy reason, revealing anonymous editors will have a "chilling [of] the free speech rights of other Wikipedia editors who will hesitate to edit on matters of public concern for fear of being sued if they make a mistake."
What do you think? Should anonymous Wikipedia editors be responsible for their edits?
Originally seen on ABAJournal here.
