He Said, She Said, They All Said, What They Said

Barbara Bauer is suing a number of people. Without commenting on the merits of the case—you can google around and get a picture of what was said, by whom, and when—it seems that everyone has run afoul of the peculiar qualities of the internet. It spreads information, true or false, very quickly, and once something is posted, there's no getting it off the web.

The battle is going to be expensive for both plaintiff and defendants. There's no word on how the plaintiff is paying for her suit and there is a page for donations for the defendants' legal expenses, which may indicate they are feeling pinched. No matter what the decision, about all that will happen is money will change hands. Lawyers will get paid, certainly. It's not clear the defendants have the funds to pay any large settlement, should the case go against them. Cached material will not go away. The complaint itself is a public record that can be consulted at the click of a mouse.

Probably the most interesting things that will come out of the whole affair will be legal decisions. Already Wikimedia has been dropped from the case. Nonetheless, the mere existence of a suit had a chilling effect on the publicly-edited web encyclopedia, as can be seen in one of several discussions of how things were handled.

But things are not yet over: court proceedings continue.