Learning about Wikipedia from its Outside Legal Counsel

--"The Wikimedia Foundation asks us to, “Imagine a world in which  every single person is given free access to the sum of all human knowledge."  Wikimedia Foundation --

Curious to find out what Brad Patrick, Wikipedia's Outside Counsel, would say about Wikipedia's liability? And how he would describe Wikipedia's internal workings and infrastructure?

Listen in to this week's AudioBerkman and find out what Patrick has to say about Wikipedia, Wikimania, and the law.  A big thanks goes to Berkman's Colin Rhinesmith for producing the podcast.

Also, SJ Klein, Berkman friend, had a brief Q&A with Brad Patrick after his luncheon series presentation. 

SJ Klein:  It was good to have you here today.  How long ago did you get involved with the Wikimedia Foundation?
Brad Patrick:  0.3 years, good to one significant digit.  I started getting involved in October.  Because of Jimbo's guest blogging on Lessig's blog last summer, I became aware of Wikipedia.  Before that I had no clue what Wikipedia was, except to the extent that it came up in Google searches.  I was astonished to learn that this phenomenal organization had its offices in, of all places, St. Petersburg, Florida; a mere 20-minute drive from my office.  Given the mission of the organization and my parallel interests, it seemed like too good an opportunity to pass up.

SJ:  What are the biggest legal challenges facing Wikipedia and the Wikimedia Foundation?
BP:  Wikipedia is a unique organization in that it relies on the contributions of thousands and thousands of users and editors.  Part of the legal framework that Wikipedia rests on is an understanding of the relationship between the community and the content.  Protecting that relationship is one of Wikipedia's foremost challenges.

SJ: And how are internal laws and policies on Wikipedia influenced by external legal challenges?
BP: One of the most important principles on wikipedia is no 'copyvios'. We take copyrights seriously, as evidenced both by the license we use and by our compliance with DMCA and our responsiveness to requests to remove copyrighted material. This is the best example of how community policy flows from law [in this case, DMCA].

SJ: There are regular debates about whether Wikipedia content is accurate, or whether it infringes certain laws.  Does Wikimedia as an organization stand behind the content published on its sites?
BP: It is not the role of Wikimedia to say one way or another what any particular user's judgment of the accuracy of content is.  However, in at least one study, Wikipedia content was found to be at least comparable with EB (Encyclopedia Britannica).  Go figure.