Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2013-03-18/Arbitration report

On Thursday, arbitrator Coren resigned, following closely on the heels of [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard&diff=543737242&oldid=543732073 arbitrator Hersfold's resignation] on Wednesday. There are two open cases. A final decision has been given in the Norton case.

Coren's resignation
Arbitrator Coren resigned, effective immediately, charging that the committee has become politicized. The matter is covered in this week's "News and notes."

Richard Arthur Norton (1958- )
This case, brought by Fram, involved allegations of an ongoing pattern of copyright violations in uploaded files, and in links to copyright-violating off-wiki pages. To address the issue of a portion of the evidence having been deleted and only viewable by administrators, a select number of deleted files were restored, with the contents visible via a template, for the duration of the case.

The committee passed the following findings of fact: that Norton had made more than 100,000 edits since 2004, that he had a history of adding text and images that were in violation of copyright, that he had done little to resolve copyright concerns, that he had violated a topic ban on article creation, and that he was willing to accept restrictions on his editing to prevent further incidents.

The committee passed the following remedies: that Norton is “strongly admonished" for copyright violations, that his topic ban on article creation remain in place, that he is restricted from uploading images for use on English Wikipedia, and that any links to external sites he has contributed to are to be vetted on the talk page before being added to article space by another editor.

Sexology
This case, brought by Mark Arsten, was opened over a dispute over transgenderism topics that began off-wiki. The evidence phase was scheduled to close March 7, 2013, with a proposed decision due to be posted by March 21.

Tea Party movement
This case was brought to the Committee by KillerChihuahua, who alleges the discussion over this American political group has degenerated into incivility. The evidence phase of the case was due to close by March 20, 2013, and a decision is scheduled for April 3, 2013.

Other requests and committee action

 * Unblock request: Fæ: The committee [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard#Unblock_of_F.C3.A6 accepted] the appeal of Fæ, after he declared his past accounts, on the condition that Fæ is topic banned from images and BLPs "relating to sexuality, broadly construed".
 * Statement: Malleus Fatuorum and George Ponderevo: The committee responded to an assertion that Malleus Fatuorum had been using the account of George Ponderevo as an alternate account by passing a [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard#Statement_regarding_Malleus_Fatuorum_and_George_Ponderevo motion] to mark the accounts with a shared IP tag.
 * Position changes at Audit Subcommittee (AUSC): The arbitration committee [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee%2FAudit_Subcommittee&diff=543394401&oldid=530767923 extended] the terms of three of the members of the Audit Subcommittee (AUSC) whose terms originally ended on February 28, 2013 to April 30, 2013. An arbitrator was [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Audit_Subcommittee&diff=544521884&oldid=544252088 named] to fill the position of an arbitrator who resigned.  A [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration_Committee/Noticeboard#Audit_Subcommittee_vacancies:_Call_for_applications_.282013.29 call] was issued for applications for three vacancies for non-arbitrator members to the subcommittee, to be submitted before April 1, 2013
 * Clarification Request: Arbitration Enforcement: A [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment#Clarification_request:_Procedural_issues_at_WP:AE request for clarification] has been brought by Gatoclass regarding whether an administrator can “act in a request" involving 1RR restrictions, whether an administrator can act when an editor has not received a formal warning, whether an administrator can adjudicate in an appeal if they adjudicated in the decision that lead to the appeal, and whether an administrator can issue a warning before consensus on a request has been reached.
 * Amendment Request: Monty Hall problem: A [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests#Amendment_request:_Monty_Hall_problem request] has been made to the committee for amendment of the remedies, including removal of discretionary sanctions.
 * Clarification request: Climate change: A [//en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment#Clarification_request:_Climate_change clarification request] of the climate change case was filed by NewsAndEventsGuy, who requests clarification of who can post arbitration enforcement notices to talk pages and add to the notifications, blocks, bans, and sanctions log.
 * Clarification request: Discretionary sanctions appeals procedure: A [//en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Wikipedia:Arbitration/Requests/Clarification_and_Amendment&diff=next&oldid=542754682 request] to clarify the appeal process for discretionary sanctions warnings was filed by Sandstein.