Wikipedia talk:Wikipedia Signpost/2008-01-07/In the news

Danny Wool
Danny Wool [was] involved with Wikipedia in the past - User:Danny is still a Wikipedia editor. Corvus cornix talk  23:00, 9 January 2008 (UTC)

Case citation
Not exactly Wikipedia "in the news", but I recently came across the following in a case:

To begin with, it is not clear that internet sources in general, or the ones cited by Mr. Muravnik in particular, are inherently unreliable. Countless contemporary judicial opinions cite internet sources, and many specifically cite Wikipedia. See, e.g., Phillips v. Pembroke Real Estate, Inc., 459 F.3d 128, 133 n.3 (1st Cir. 2006); Reuland v. Hynes, 460 F.3d 409, 422 n.1 (2d Cir. 2006) (Winter, J. dissenting); Allegheny Defense Project, Inc. v. United States Forest Service, 423 F.3d 215, 218 n.5 (3d Cir. 2005); N'Diom v. Gonzales, 442 F.3d 494, 496 (6th Cir. 2006); United States v. Krueger, 415 F.3d 766, 769 (7th Cir. 2005); Bourgeois v. Peters, 387 F.3d 1303, 1312 (11th Cir. 2004); Sacirbey v. Guccione, No. 05 Civ. 2949, 2006 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 64577, 2006 WL 2585561, at *1 n.2 (S.D.N.Y Sept. 7, 2006); Applied Interact, LLC v. Vermont Teddy Bear Co., No. 04 Civ. 8713, 2005 U.S. Dist. LEXIS 19070, 2005 WL 2133416, at *11 (S.D.N.Y Sept. 6, 2005). While citing a website in a judicial opinion is not analytically identical to basing an expert opinion on such a source... the frequent citation of Wikipedia at least suggests that many courts do not consider it to be inherently unreliable. In fact, a recent and highly-publicized analysis in the magazine Nature found that the error rate of Wikipedia entries was not significantly greater than in those of the Encyclopaedia Britannica. Jim Giles, Internet Encyclopaedias Go Head to Head (Dec. 14, 2005), http://www.nature.com/news/2005/051212/full/438900a.html (finding that "the difference in accuracy was not particularly great: the average science entry in Wikipedia contained around four inaccuracies; Britannica, about three.")) And, indeed, the defendants do not point to any actual errors in the entry cited by Mr. Muravnik. Thus, despite reasonable concerns about the ability of anonymous users to alter Wikipedia entries, the information provided there is not so inherently unreliable as to render inadmissible any opinion that references it.

Alfa Corp. v. Oao Alfa Bank, 475 F. Supp. 2d 357, 361-362 (S.D.N.Y. 2007).

Cheers! bd2412 T 08:03, 15 January 2008 (UTC)


 * See Wikipedia as a court source and Reliability of Wikipedia. Regards, High on a tree (talk) 08:30, 15 January 2008 (UTC)