Joi Ito posted a message from Jimmy Wales, Wikipedia founder, on the recent supposed German Wikipedia lawsuit. The following 7 points were copied from Joi's blog.
- The German version of Wikipedia is *always* at http://de.wikipedia.org/
- The site was never shut down not even for a single instant
- The http://www.wikipedia.de/ domain belongs to the German Verein (a club of Wikipedia users, a local chapter).
- That domain has never been used to access the encyclopedia. There was always a courtesy notice on the 404-not-found page there, telling people the correct URL.
- The Wikimedia Foundation has never been served process about any action against us in German court.
- The Wikimedia Foundation has not reached any temporary settlement with any Berlin court — we have no contact with any Berlin courts.
- The German Verein was ordered very briefly to not point people to the http://de.wikipedia.org/ — a rather stupid order which was quickly reversed — but in any event an order with absolutely no material meaning since that domain has never been used to access Wikipedia at all.
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