Berlin court issues provisional order against the Wikimedia Foundation
{{WikimediaMention}}
{{date|January 19, 2006}}
[[Image:Wikipedia-logo.png|right|thumb|200px|Wikipedia logo]]
<!-- This article is a translation of the German Wikinews article, with changes made for spelling and grammatical reasons.  Some of this text may still not be decipherable. -->

A district court in [[w:Berlin|Berlin]] has issued a preliminary injunction against the [[w:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]] for displaying the true name of a computer [[w:hacker|hacker]] on the German [[w:Wikipedia|Wikipedia]].  The family of the deceased German hacker, known as "[[w:Tron (hacker)|Tron]]," obtained the provisional order in Berlin on December 14. The order was corrected on December 19 because it was at first addressed to [[w:Saint Petersburg|Saint Petersburg, Russia]]  instead of [[w:Saint Petersburg, Florida|Saint Petersburg, Florida]].

Tron became famous as the first person to [[w:encryption cracking|crack]] the [[w:encryption|encryption]] of [[w:Pay TV|Pay TV]] and [[w:Telephone card|calling cards]]. He died in 1998, at the age of 26, in an apparent [[w:suicide|suicide]]. Questions have arisen as to the nature of the hacker's death.

The court has ordered the German Wikipedia to remove all forms of the hacker's complete civil name "Boris Floricic". The court states that this is justified by the fact that the hacker never worked under his civil name, but instead his Internet alias.

The legality of the order is in question, because the Wikimedia Foundation servers are not located in [[w:Germany|Germany]], but instead in the [[w:United States|United States]]. Whether the Foundation will comply or if the family's attorneys have any means to enforce the decision remains in doubt. The case prompted many German media outlets to publicly display the hacker's real name.
<!-- Had to delete a lot of this, because I don't know German and could not decipher most of it.  I salvaged this sentence: The order does not define the users who include Tron's real name as a party interference. / Added the missing sentence -->

On January 17 the same court also issued a preliminary injunction against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the German chapter of the [[w:Wikimedia Foundation|Wikimedia Foundation]], citing the same reasons. In that injuction, the chapter was ordered to cease redirecting [http://www.wikipedia.de www.wikipedia.de] to [http://de.wikipedia.org de.wikipedia.org]. Wikimedia Deutschland complied, but its lawyers announced that they will appeal the decision, saying that Tron's civil name has long since been public knowledge.

==Sources==
<!-- Sources have been sorted newest to lodest-->
*{{source
|pub=Wikinews
|url=http://de.wikinews.org/wiki/Amtsgericht_Charlottenburg_erl%C3%A4sst_einstweilige_Verf%C3%BCgung_gegen_die_Wikimedia_Foundation|title=Amtsgericht Charlottenburg erlässt einstweilige Verfügung gegen die Wikimedia Foundation
|author=German Wikinews
|date=January 19, 2006}}

*{{source
|url=http://www.golem.de/0601/42806.html
|title=Wikipedia.de derzeit abgeschaltet (Update)
|author=
|pub=Golem
|date=January 19, 2006}}

*{{source|author=Stud. Jur. Philipp Otto
|url=http://www.e-recht24.de/news/sonstige/322.html
|pub=e-recht24.de
|title=Rechtsstreit um postmortalen Persönlichkeitsschutz eines Hackers
|date=January 16, 2006}}

*{{source
|author=
|pub=CCC
|url=https://www.ccc.de/updates/2006/wikipedia-vs-tron?language=de
|title=Klarstellung zu Wikipedia vs. Tron
|date=January 13, 2006}}

*{{source
|author=Annabel Dillig
|pub=sueddeutsche.de
|title=Die Hacker im Cyber-Märchen-Wald
|url=http://www.sueddeutsche.de/,kulm1/kultur/artikel/970/67903/
|date=January 11, 2006}}

*{{source|author=Burkhard Schröder
|pub=Heise.de
|url=http://www.heise.de/tp/r4/artikel/21/21750/1.html
|title=Hacker leben nicht gefährlich
|date=January 10, 2006}}
<!-- Sources have been sorted newest to oldest-->

{{publish}}

{{archive}}
[[Category:Wikipedia]]
[[Category:Germany]]
[[Category:Internet]]
[[Category:Crime and law]]
[[Category:Free speech]]
[[Category:Europe]]
[[Category:North America]]
[[Category:United States]]
[[Category:Florida]]
[[Category:Saint Petersburg, Florida]]

[[de:Amtsgericht Charlottenburg erlässt einstweilige Verfügung gegen die Wikimedia Foundation]]
[[es:Corte ordena desligar dirección Internet alemana de Wikipedia]]
[[ja:ベルリン地方裁判所がウィキメディア財団に仮処分命令]]
[[pt:Justiça alemã aceita processo contra Wikimedia]]
[[ru:Домен Wikipedia.de закрыт]]
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A district court in Berlin has issued a preliminary injunction against the Wikimedia Foundation for displaying the true name of a computer hacker on the German Wikipedia.  The family of the deceased German hacker, known as "Tron," obtained the provisional order in Berlin on December 14. The order was corrected on December 19 because it was at first addressed to Saint Petersburg, Russia  instead of Saint Petersburg, Florida.

Tron became famous as the first person to crack the encryption of Pay TV and calling cards. He died in 1998, at the age of 26, in an apparent suicide. Questions have arisen as to the nature of the hacker's death.

The court has ordered the German Wikipedia to remove all forms of the hacker's complete civil name "Boris Floricic". The court states that this is justified by the fact that the hacker never worked under his civil name, but instead his Internet alias.

The legality of the order is in question, because the Wikimedia Foundation servers are not located in Germany, but instead in the United States. Whether the Foundation will comply or if the family's attorneys have any means to enforce the decision remains in doubt. The case prompted many German media outlets to publicly display the hacker's real name.


On January 17 the same court also issued a preliminary injunction against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the German chapter of the Wikimedia Foundation, citing the same reasons. In that injuction, the chapter was ordered to cease redirecting  www.wikipedia.de to  de.wikipedia.org. Wikimedia Deutschland complied, but its lawyers announced that they will appeal the decision, saying that Tron's civil name has long since been public knowledge.

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de:Amtsgericht Charlottenburg erlässt einstweilige Verfügung gegen die Wikimedia Foundation
es:Corte ordena desligar dirección Internet alemana de Wikipedia
ja:ベルリン地方裁判所がウィキメディア財団に仮処分命令
Justiça alemã aceita processo contra Wikimedia
Wikipedia Germany Internet Crime and law Free speech Europe North America United States Florida Saint Petersburg, Florida