Green Posse

When I first saw this headline today on numerous websites, I thought it was a parody or joke of some kind. As it turns out, a lawsuit has been filed on Zoeller’s behalf, but it’s complicated. Allegedly, someone posted defamatory information about Zoeller on the communal encyclopedia, Wikipedia. In a nutshell, Wikipedia is an online encylopedia by everyone and for everyone. Literally. Virtually anyone can edit a definition on the site to enhance or clarify something that’s already been written. Great in concept, but has it’s drawbacks.

As you can tell from Zoeller’s Wikipedia entry, it provides lots of detail about Zoeller and his career that appears to be accurate at first glance (though I haven’t verified any of the information). But without any sort of validation or editing for legal liabilities, I’m surprised this kind of thing hasn’t happened more often. I’ve used Wikipedia in the past, but mainly for topics related to music, but even at that I take some of what I’ve read with a grain of salt, simply because of its free-for-all type of contributions.

In any case, Zoeller’s lawsuit isn’t being filed against Wikipedia, but rather against the company who owns the I.P. address of the computer that was used to post the defamatory content. Because it’s fairly easy to spoof an I.P. address, all it takes is a lawyer that understands how today’s technology works, and it’s possible this could get thrown out of court. But it does beg the question: should the owners of an I.P. range be held liable and accountable for content that is posted to the Internet? I think we’re just scratching the surface on these type of legal issues as they pertain to online content.

[Note: the picture is from Fuzzy and Tiger's happier times. ]

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