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The Associated Press:
"The Wikimedia Foundation, which runs the collaborative Web encyclopedia, reached a temporary settlement with a Berlin court that will let users access the German-language version of Wikipedia at http://de.wikipedia.org, hosted in the United States, instead of its usual http://www.wikipedia.de."
— Businessweek
Another version:
"The German version of Wikipedia returned to the Internet on Friday after three days offline, a blackout prompted by a lawsuit in which the parents of a dead hacker objected to the site's use of his real name."
— Forbes
This is so mindbogglingly wrong that I don't even know where to begin.
1. The German version of Wikipedia is *always* at http://de.wikipedia.org/
2. The site was never shut down not even for a single instant
3. The http://www.wikipedia.de/ domain belongs to the German Verein (a club of Wikipedia users, a local chapter).
4. That domain has never been used to access the encyclopedia. There was always a courtesy notice on the 404-not-found page there, telling people the correct URL.
5. The Wikimedia Foundation has never been served process about any action against us in German court.
6. The Wikimedia Foundation has not reached any temporary settlement with any Berlin court — we have no contact with any Berlin courts.
7. The German Verein was ordered very briefly to not point people to the http://de.wikipedia.org/ — a rather stupid order which was quickly reversed — but in any event an order with absolutely no material meaning since that domain has never been used to access Wikipedia at all.
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Comments
Maybe I'm still sleeping, but aren't
"The German version of Wikipedia is *always* at http://de.wikipedia.org/"
and
"not point people to the http://de.wikipedia.org/ ... an order with absolutely no material meaning since that domain has never been used to access Wikipedia at all."
contradictory?
Posted by: Cody Hess | January 21, 2006 10:11 AM
Good point. Jimbo in a later msg wrote in response to someone else pointing this out:
Posted by: David Weinberger![[TypeKey Profile Page]](http://www.hyperorg.com/blogger/nav-commenters.gif)
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January 21, 2006 10:22 AM
Is there some sort of structural inability among old media to interpret anything having to do with Wikipedia? It almost seems like there's an issue of translation from one medium to another. But that's probably chalking too much up to the medium rather than those using it.
Posted by: nathan | January 21, 2006 01:20 PM
Perhaps old media used to get away with these sort of things, because there were no new media around to contradict them.
Posted by: Branko Collin | January 22, 2006 10:45 PM