Author Topic: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland  (Read 1647 times)

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Offline Askold

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Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« on: February 08, 2014, 03:20:52 am »
So...

Has any one of you been recently to wikipedia? Have you noticed how wikipedia is asking for donations?

Well, they didn't get the proper permits to do that in Finland so now the police are going to do something about it. And by something I mean that they are going to confiscate all the money that wikipedia has earned illegally, which is luckily only limited to Finnish donations.

A lot of people think that the Finnish laws about donations and charities are stupid but the way things are currently wikipedia has broken the laws quite clearly by asking the donations in the Finnish language version.

http://www.afterdawn.com/news/article.cfm/2014/02/07/finnish_police_probe_wikipedia_donation_requests
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Offline Ultimate Paragon

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Re: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« Reply #1 on: February 08, 2014, 09:54:48 am »
Why do they even have these laws?

Offline Ironchew

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Re: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« Reply #2 on: February 08, 2014, 09:58:51 am »
Funny, I thought Wikipedia's servers were outside of Finnish jurisdiction.

Then again, the financial j00spiracy has no borders when it freezes your credit card transactions.
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Offline Askold

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Re: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« Reply #3 on: February 08, 2014, 10:29:05 am »
Why do they even have these laws?

There is a fear of scammers making fake donation drives. Basically if someone shows up and says they are gathering donations for sick children in Africa you might want to be sure that the money goes to Africa rather than his/her own pockets.

Not that such things would be common but at some point some lawmaker was afraid of such a thing so they made the law.
No matter what happens, no matter what my last words may end up being, I want everyone to claim that they were:
"If you strike me down, I shall become more powerful than you could possibly imagine."
Aww, you guys rock. :)  I feel the love... and the pitchforks and torches.  Tingly!

Offline mellenORL

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Re: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« Reply #4 on: February 08, 2014, 10:36:48 am »
I really hope they cut Wiki some slack on this. They have provided such a valuable public service with their site for so very long, and never made a penny of profit from it. Anything more than a citation without a fine is going to make Finland's law enforcement look like uber douches.
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Offline Yla

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Re: Wikipedia got into legal trouble in Finland
« Reply #5 on: February 12, 2014, 05:10:20 am »
Why do they even have these laws?

There is a fear of scammers making fake donation drives. Basically if someone shows up and says they are gathering donations for sick children in Africa you might want to be sure that the money goes to Africa rather than his/her own pockets.

Not that such things would be common but at some point some lawmaker was afraid of such a thing so they made the law.
Oh, it happens. I can't quantify exactly how common it is, but charity scams are a thing.
That said, I've stopped trying to anticipate what people around here want a while ago, I've found it makes things smoother.
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