New York Times:
Wolfgang Werlé and Manfred Lauber became infamous for killing a German actor in 1990. Now they are suing to force Wikipedia to forget them.
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Under U.S. law, defamation (libel) must be meet 5 requirements:
1. The information was published.
2. There's direct identification.
3. It's harmful to reputation.
4. It's false.
5. Whoever released/p
The fourth (and thus, fifth) elements of the test does not apply here. These men did kill someone; that is the fact that was published, so there should be no question.
A 1964 lawsuit involving New York Times states that defamation and libel must be done with “actual malice.” There is no evidence of malice in this case.
In Germany this can be handled differently because of their laws, but they must catch up with times and realize that the Internet is a global marketplace of ideas. They can’t stop progress.
America widely protects free speech, much more than Germany (where you can’t publish someone’s prior acts after they've paid their debt.) By America’s legal standards, defined above, the publishing of these men’s names is not illegal or anything close to illegal. By Germany’s legal standards, it is.
I believe that it is laughable that these two men who have killed someone, robbing that person of all his or her rights for what would have been the rest of the victim’s life, are crying about a damaged reputation. They are lucky they are out of jail and even luckier that they themselves have not lost their lives; they should count their blessings and go on with their lives while they can.
So they killed someone, was found guilty, spent time in prison and now don't want to be refered to as killers? I guess I'm missing something here. They did kill someone right? Well, from now on they will be thought of as killers. And if the case was famous in Germany, isn't this kinda moot? People still know of them. Much ado about nothing.
The solution here is the make these brutal killers infamous. Link a comment about how these convicted murders are attacking the US First Amendment protection of free speech. We can generate a million posts about these killers and their names will forever be stained by their deeds.
“A criminal has a right to privacy, too, and a right to be left alone.”
Unless they have seen fit to deny/deprive their victim/s of that same entitlement. And by such act/s, consciously surrender any claim and/or right to that protection.
It seems to me that Germany has too many problems with the concept of freedom of expression, and the development of the Internet has made these problems much more evident and public. Germany should reform their constitution to guarantee freedom of expression.
All history is also your own history. Facts exist for us. Editing history is one of the greatest evils in the world and is without exception totally unacceptable. It is one of the very few reasons I would take up arms. All thinking people should know that on this issue, fight without quarter is neccessary if the good is to prevail.
"In May 1993, Wolfgang Werlé and half-brother Manfred Lauber, former business associates of Walter Sedlmayr, were sentenced to life in prison for his murder." They only served 15 years of their life sentence. I am never quite sure if this an equitable justice, since the victim is dead forever. I don't believe these men should have the right of anonymity. The rest of us need to know who people are who commit murder, so we can protect ourselves from them.
Absolutely right.
How much effort do you really expend defending yourself from Germans?
Michael Godwin, general counsel of the Wikimedia Foundation, a nonprofit organization in San Francisco, said the foundation “doesn’t edit content at all, unless we get a court order from a court of competent jurisdicti
It has to be Competent?
That means they'll never do it.
guess how much weight German laws hold in US courts. Give up? The answer is zero. these killers can't murder our first amendment rights, their lawsuit is pointless.
I guess we'll see if Wiki wants to do business in Germany, huh?
They were sentenced to life in prison for a brutal murder and got out in 14 and 15 years, it sounds like they've got a little more time on their sentence to pay their debt to society. Like life.
I hope Wikipedia keeps the facts in the article. I'm sorry -- murd*r is permanent for the victim. It shouldn't be a temporary inconvencience for the perpetrators.
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First Posted: 11-13-09 01:18 AM | Updated: 11-13-09 01:34 AM