When something unfortunate happens, you can be sure of two things. A lot of people will try to help while some other people will try to take advantage of the situation to make money. It’s like a bad event works some cosmic mojo that magically separates the angels from the opportunists.
You see this sort of thing on the big scale (think 9-11 or Katrina) and on the small scale.
So we have a little problem with Wikipedia. Some people work to fix the problem and one guy apologizes for his role in causing (or at least demonstrating) the problem.
Meanwhile, other people sit around noodling about how they can take advantage of the situation to make a little easy money. The best they can come up with (so far, anyway) is to file a class action lawsuit.
Some good detective work has provided a little information about the people behind this latest caper. You would think that no lawyer would even consider filing this ridiculous lawsuit. Unfortunately, however, there seems to be a lawyer for every real or imagined wrong. These days if you look at someone funny, some lawyer will be standing by to sue you into the stone age (for a fee). I can imagine the forthcoming treatises on “Trying the Funny Look Case” and “Wrongful Buzz Kills.” We can’t count on the lawyers to solve this problem, so the solution has to come from elsewhere.
Maybe it’s time for a little more internet self-policing. If the voice of the people can change Sony’s corporate policy on DRM, maybe the same voice can stop opportunists from hijacking the system. If these people get the Sony treatment, maybe they’ll find another more productive way to make money. Everyone else in the virtual room needs to stand up and shout – “help us make things better or get out of our way!”
No one who cares about the web community should stand for anything else.
Technorati Tags:
wikipedia
Newsome.Org 