Escalating its fight against so-called “sockpuppetry,” Wikipedia has sicced its legal team on
Wiki-PR, a company that says it offers
consulting services to help clients draft or manage their entries on the online encyclopedia.
“When outside publicity firms and their agents conceal or misrepresent their identity by
creating or allowing false, unauthorized or misleading user accounts, Wikipedia's reputation is harmed,” the Web encyclopedia’s lawyers write in a cease-and-desist letter sent to Wiki-PR this week. “Sockpuppetry and
meatpuppetry are especially harmful when used to disguise secret works of advocacy.”
The letter adds that paid submissions not only violate Wikipedia's policies, but also create more
work for the volunteer editors. “Wikipedia community members are effectively forced to shoulder the costs of for-profit, commercial paid advocacy editing because they must continuously search
for false accounts and suspend them,” the site's lawyers state.
The letter goes on to assert that a company that violates the terms of use could be liable for fraud, unfair business
practices, and breach of contract, among others.
If nothing else, the cease-and-desist sends a message that the company is prepared to litigate, says Santa Clara University law professor Eric
Goldman. “Wikipedia's drawing a line in the sand about paid editing,” he says. “They're signaling that they might actually go to court to enforce it.”
For its part,
Wiki-PR says on its site that it doesn't directly edit Wikipedia pages, but helps clients to draft their own pages. A company representative tells MediaPost that Wiki-PR is working with the online
encyclopedia and its lawyers “to sort this out.”
Should doing so prove impossible, the dispute could end up in court. If so, it won't be the first time that an Internet company has
sued over paid submissions. This summer, Yelp filed suit against BuyYelpReview.com, a company that
allegedly wrote fake reviews for businesses willing to pay $25 per post.