Invitation to the IMKR Lecture on Wikipedia

At the invitation of the Institute for Media and Communications Law (IMKR), Dr. Lukas Mezger will give a lecture on “Wikipedia and the Law – Current Legal Issues Surrounding the Free Online Encyclopedia” on January 11, 2017, at 7:00 p.m. sharp in Room US-A 120 (Unteres Schloss). All interested students and staff of the University of Siegen are cordially invited to attend.

Wikipedia is the fifth most popular website in the world. It is therefore no surprise that it raises a number of legal questions. Anyone can contribute to Wikipedia, and almost any topic is relevant. Not everyone is pleased about this, however: what can you do if the entry about you infringes your rights? The community of volunteer Wikipedia authors tries to resolve such conflicts through dialogue. In Germany in particular, however, people are quick to go to court: 16% of all formal requests to change Wikipedia entries come from Germany, and quite a few of them end up before German courts. The legal issues dealt with in these proceedings stem from press, copyright, trademark, and competition law.

Dr. Lukas Mezger will explain how Wikipedia works and give an overview of current legal issues concerning the online community. He is an attorney specializing in media and IT law at UNVERZAGT VON HAVE in Hamburg and has been active for many years as a Wikipedia author, including in the legal field. Since 2014, he has been a member of the honorary Supervisory Board (Präsidium) of Wikimedia Deutschland and data protection ombudsman for the Wikimedia communities.

Following the lecture, the IMKR invites guests to wine and pretzels.

Update: A report on the event can be found in the news item from January 11, 2017.