Wikis and Pandora Boxes
Yellowikis was started in 2004 by father and daughter team, Paul Youlten and 14-year old Rosa Blaus. Yellowikis is an online, participatory directory, which uses free wiki software MediaWiki as its technology framework. The site is run as a hobby and not for profit, said Mr. Youlten. "We have 400 to 500 register editors who update the pages as a hobby."
Commercial-based, online directory provider Yell.com is threatening legal action against Yellowikis -- claiming Intellectual Property (IP) infringement.
Yell's lawyers say that the similarities in name may cause users to go to yellowikis.org instead of yell.com. Yell is demanding that Youlten shut down yellowikis.org and relinquish yellowikis' domains. Though not stated by Yell's lawyers, the 5,000 plus and growing number of entries in yellowiki.org challenges yell.com's own directory information.
The case has not yet been argued in the courts. Regardless of the outcome, the Yell v. Yellowikis case raises several questions.
- Can a community own IP? (While I assume that Youlten registered the yellowikis org domain, is the domain figuratively owned by Youlten or by the community?)
- To what degree will content, which is created within a user-driven, participatory framework, e.g., a wiki, be protected under the law? (Should the yellowikis.org domains be closed or transferred, what happens to the content managed under yellowikis.org?)
By its nature, participatory media, e.g., wikis, blogs and podcasts, is powered by the collective input of content. The media itself, however, is merely a container that holds that content.
The world is made up of many constituents. To not expect that participatory media will open a Pandora's box is being shortsighted.
EUCAP's blog Yell.com Threatens to Shutdown Yellowikis raises a possible remediation. Others will surface.
Given the dubious nature of the yell.com case, Paul and Rosa may survive the cease-and-desist and its subsequent arbitration with a little legal help from a Creative Commons institution.
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A lot of opinions within the wiki community. Here's a sampling:
Ross Mayfield's Weblog "... its hard to see the trademark infringement. But as a small wiki community, its even harder to see them standing against the cease and desist letter."
Vendorprisey "We are talking about UK law here, not US law. ..."