Wikipedia:Wikipedia Signpost/2024-01-10/News and notes

Wikimedia Foundation files amicus curiae brief in US Supreme Court case
The Wikimedia Foundation last month filed a "friend-of-the-court" brief with the US Supreme Court supporting challenges to laws that regulate online media in Texas and Florida. It says these laws "threaten the right to freedom of expression as enshrined under the First Amendment of the US Constitution. Our brief aims to inform the Supreme Court about how those laws also threaten community-governed free and open knowledge projects like Wikipedia."

The Foundation's lawyers, Cooley LLP, said in a press release about the two cases concerned:

– AK

2024 WikiCup begins
The 2024 WikiCup began on January 1; since registrations opened, over 120 users have signed up for the competition. The Cup is a yearly editing contest that has been run since 2007. Participants are awarded points for writing and reviewing content. Readers are encouraged to sign up for the competition or subscribe to the newsletter! – F

Are makers of generative AI chatbots infringing copyrights?
Politico reports on the New York Times lawsuit against OpenAI and Microsoft, which aims to prevent the latter from continuing to use its stories to train chatbots.

It is worth noting that Wikipedia is another major source used to build generative AI chatbots. If the Times lawsuit is successful, then the use of Wikipedia content could – conceivably – likewise be found to be infringing the copyright of its volunteer authors. Or the reverse, media companies that aggressively defend copyright could conceivably lead to more AI training from open knowledge content like Wikipedia. – B, AK

16 January: Universal Code of Conduct Coordinating Committee (U4C) Charter vote
Patrick Earley, the Wikimedia Foundation's Lead Trust & Safety Policy Manager, has provided an update about Universal Code of Conduct development on the Wikimedia-l mailing list:

According to voter information provided on Meta-Wiki, the vote will run from 16 to 30 January 2024. – AK

Brief notes

 * Annual reports: Wikimedia Community User Group Turkey, Wikimedia Ghana User Group, Wikimedia Stewards User Group.


 * New administrators: The Signpost welcomes the English Wikipedia's newest administrators, (January 3, 196–0) and  (January 5, 207-6-8)
 * Milestones: The following Wikimedia projects reached milestones this week:
 * Dagaare Wikipedia (dga.wikipedia.org) launched in December; see Diff news.
 * Articles for Improvement: This week's Article for Improvement is Antacid, followed next week, from 15 January, by Shovel. Please be bold in helping improve these articles!