Monday, December 10, 2007

Pole sues Wikipedia for calling him ‘a troll’!


Buy perfect Christmas ‘Metka by Traczka’ present – as mentioned in Przekroj magazine - here…if you don’t my girlfriend will kill me…

Arnold Buzdygan (photo) – sometime wannabe presidential candidate, and a regular on usernet sites in Poland – went to court in Wroclaw, southwestern Poland, last week, to sue Wikpedia Polska for deformation of character.

Is the victim/litigation culture entrenching itself in Poland, as it has done in the United Kingdom? Let’s hope not.

Buzdygan claims that his fiancée’s mother refused to let the marriage go ahead because of an entry on the Polish version of Wikipedia, which, in the ‘controversies’ section, calls him ‘a troll’ for his vulgar interjections on blogs and forums. thenews.pl reports:

Buzdygan claims that calling him a “troll” is offensive. “This is a very grave offense among Internet users. Something like a paedophile elsewhere”, says Buzdygan, quoted by the tvn24.pl news portal…

“Mr. Buzdygan’s claims are ridiculous. Wikipedia is not our product, it is being created by Internet users. Basically, anyone can contribute. The administrator’s role is solely to prevent vandalism”, said a Wikipedia editor…

However, Andrzej Malicki, at the Circuit Bar Council in Wroclaw, disagrees: “Internet media should adhere to the same rules as newspapers, for instance. If offensive material is published, the editor should bear in mind the possible consequences.”

Troll? ‘Offensive material’?

Wikipedia’s own entry on the word says:

Someone who intentionally posts controversial or contrary messages in an on-line community such as an on-line discussion forum or group with the singular intention of baiting users into an argumentative response.[1] It often has a broader meaning referring to any shady trouble making Internet activity.

So, it is possible to waste precious Polish court time – and it is precious: cases can take years to get as far as court – by claiming that saying someone is a ‘troublemaker’ on the internet is 'offensive'. LOL, as troll-types say.

It is bad enough when big business use the courts to shut people’s opinions up which they don’t like, but when internet users go to the same lengths, then it is about time we called cranks like Buzdygan something worse than a ‘troll’. How about 'dickhead timewaster'?

His fiancée’s mother is a very wise woman, indeed.

29 comments:

Anonymous said...

Can you post a picture of his fiancé; perhaps wikipedia did him a favour.Or perhaps the idea of being this whining freak’s mother-in-law was just too much.

This could be a major set back to social change in Poland for if they produced offspring we could have had tangible evidence for providing abortion on demand.

The courts could indeed be the answer, the prosecutors should have his mother arrested and brought to account for not suffocating him in his crib.

If you can’t take the heat stay out of the kitchen sissy!

Anonymous said...

"Is the victim/litigation culture entrenching itself in Poland, as it has done in the United Kingdom?"
Should it not read "as it has done in the US?"? I am sure none of your readers would be offended... lol.

beatroot said...

LOL. Yeah, the US is a bunch of wooooseses, too. In fact, they invented it.

LOL

Frank Partisan said...

There is $$$ if you could get a decision against Wikipedia. Good luck.

beakerkin said...

Beatenrootless

Lets see the USA has the First Amendment. This right is even granted to those with low IQ's like Troutsky.
This law also allows those who are devotees of war criminal, terrorists
and genocidal lunatics to speak freely. This right is even protected when the proponent ( the usual suspect) is an advocate of an idea that seeks a violent power change of the current US government.

The only places that this right is restricted are the communist enclaves in higher ed. These bastions of Communism have speech codes that cover such odd topics as calling a classmate a water buffalo.

We should also ponder the communist record of sending people who practice free speech into neoslavery in gulags. We should also ponder Commies in State run media. The record of commies is abundantly clear.

As far as the culture of victimization go back to Marcuse.

Anonymous said...

Marcuse?

Ho-hah-gah-haa!

You're killin' me, Bookerchin!

beatroot said...

Beakomatic

Explain the Marcuse comment please...

AZ said...

LOL. Yeah, the US is a bunch of wooooseses, too. In fact, they invented it.

LOL


I'm going to sue you for that!

Anonymous said...

Actually, this looks like an important case to me.

Putting aside the definition of the word 'troll', there is a more important problem here: what do you do if you feel defamated by a Wikipedia article?

Well, you can edit it. Except that (1) it is against regulations and (2) someone can edit it back. Sure, you can edit it again, thus engaging in an edit war. Then an administrator is supposed to step in and enforce one version -- except that there is a good probablility that the administrator(s) will settle on a version you think is defamatory. Oh, and they will ban you from editing it. See the problem?

The issue here is that there is no accountability of any kind on wikipedia. It is high time to introduce it.

beatroot said...

You see, the point about wiki is that it usually is not mediated, or edited and anything else. This is 'open publishging'.

I see your point, but that is what wiki is. And that's a strength and a wealness...like the rest of us Web 2.0s

But the guy in this case has not been the victim of anything at all, so this is academic.

The important thing is that internet trolls - or anyone else - should not go around getting the law in. If our kind of internet 'community' is going to work, and it does usually, then we have to police ourselves.

But thanks Opamp for bringing us back to the point, and not some wild stuff about Marcuse (I am still trying to fit his philosophy into my post...but have failed...)

The One-Dimensional Blogger?

Anonymous said...

Wasn't Buzdygan formerly a leading thinker in the Frankfurter School?

Anonymous said...

opamp said: “The issue here is that there is no accountability of any kind on wikipedia “

If you post an article to wikipedia, is there not a record of the ip address it was posted from therefore the poster can be identified in most cases and accountable to the law in his jurisdiction.

The internet is not outside of the law and you don’t forfeit your rights just because you’re on line.

Anonymous said...

You see, the point about wiki is that it usually is not mediated, or edited and anything else. This is 'open publishging'.

Bwahahahahah.

Thanks, really. I really appreciate good laugh after a whole day at work.

No, wiki is not mediated. That is, if you overlook ban on the name of a certain porn actress. Or a truly Orwellian case of the founder's birthday when the edit history was changed to hide the facts.

So yes, in principle wiki is not mediated. In practice, this is the cabal of administrators which runs the show.

@jannovak57:
is there not a record of the ip address

There is. So our hero could subpoena the logs and sue the offenders. But he prefers to go after the admins for some reason.

beatroot said...

Raya Dunayevskaya …Nope…I heard he has strong reservations on Adorno’s Dialectic of Enlightement…actually…

Jan – it’s not about ‘giving up your rights..’ it’s about keeping the courts out of the internet. Things have been done to me over the past couple of years that are probably criminal, because of something I wrote on this blog. But I did not go squealing to the law.

beatroot said...

Opamp - you are right, Wiki is about business, at the end of the day. But the principle is an interesting one. It makes 2.0 different from MSM. Although, I wish bloggers etc would stop thinking they are going to replace normal media, because they won't. But we don't have to start playing the legal game, either.

Anonymous said...

Beat - your scrolling link at the top of the main article - it's a game of chase the ace; You've got to be quick to click! And you can't even read the beginning of the text because it scrolls off too quickly to read...

beatroot said...

OK, I slowed it down a bit...

beakerkin said...

Beatroot

You know the material quite well. Why don't you give us your take on Marcuse and victimization?

Unlike Ren, you will concede obvious facts. Where do the speech codes in higher Ed come from? What part of the political spectrum sends a student for sensitivity training for the use of the word Water Bufalo?

Frank Partisan said...

I concede nothing.

There is no software, or even any mediating body, to complain about trolls. One can't discuss tactics against trolls, if they are taking part in the forum. You are absolutely correct that it's not an issue to involve the state apparatus. The repercussions will backfire.

Beatroot: Funny how you posted about gun culture in the US, and several shooting sprees occur in the US the same week. Cause and effect?

beakerkin said...

This is a perfect examples of why commies are hypocrites. Perhaps if the insane killer shouted a few words
about social justice you would be wearing his image on T shirts.

Leave it to a devotee of an idea that has killed at least 100,000,0000 and climbing to complain about American gun culture. It would seem that repeated evidence shows a culture of genocide associated with Commies.

beatroot said...

All this is going way over me head...

beakerkin said...

Beatroot

On a serious note, Polish issues need to be discussed in a Polish context. A discussion of crime statistics in US localities may be relavant. This is a far cry from the commie cliches about gun culture.

Then there is faulty reasoning on your part. An alleged "gun culture"
is proposed every time a lunatic who probably drank milk goes off the deep end. A similar leap of logic would have the VA Tech killing caused by reading Chomsky, Marx, Menchu or bad tofu.

The basic problem with you is that you willingly ignore stacks of evidence when it comes to Communism. A proponent of a system
with numerous examples of genocidal
behavior should be laughed at.

The victim culture starts with marcuse. Marcuse did not spring from the political center. If you lack this basic knowledge I suggest
you hit the books.

Back to the original post, Among the names I have been called are pedophile, Nazi, Stalist, homosexual and none of it bothers me at all. The idiotic Ren even speculated, based upon what, that I have killed. On your own blog a simian type wants me to come to Warsaw for a smack down.

This mostly happens when people do not have facts, logic, history or coherent thought. Paraphrasing Naipul in that when one aligns oneself to a religion or communism one has to prostitute ones thoughts
and deceive when reality does not conform to the myth.

Ren's good friend John Brown/LWB is a great example of a genuine troll
and actual Nazi. He writes the same
comment hundreds of times uses racial epithets such as calling Native Americans "Samboes". It was with great reluctance that I banned him as I believe in free speech, but spam, invasion of privacy and criminal threats are another matter.

The term troll is relative and we even have an official one at my site the Duck. The Duck is your standard contrarian and is never on topic. He does not behave criminally and none of his comments have ever been censored.

Anonymous said...

I always find the continual use of words like 'commie' comprimises any argument being made, and makes the author look a bit silly... Kinda Frank Burns-ish, really.
It's a pity, because other forms of mental illness don't prejudice me against someone...

beakerkin said...

Prostak

When a person is a self described "Trotskyist" they are indeed a Commie. If you can not take reality
that is your problem.

Continued advocacy of Communism is akin to Holocaust Denial. The record of Communism is clear even if you ignore it.

Anonymous said...

There is life beyond blogs, Beakerkin.

beakerkin said...

Remind the genocidal lunchroom Lenin's of that.

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Ekstradycja z UK said...

I think that suing wikipedea is just not cricket! Everyone knows to take the site with a pinch of salt

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