[Foundation-l] Problems on block ip user in Chinese Wikipedia

[michael_irwin at verizon.net]

mingli yuan wrote:

> Basically, we would like to have
>users' real IP (IP used to access CNBlog proxy) displayed and logged
>at Wikimedia.
>
>
>
>  
>
Would this not raise concern that it makes it easy for governmental 
authorities to trace and persecute individual users?

At the moment when I am careless regarding logins, my IP address is 
logged instead of my user handle.  This is not a concern for me at the 
moment because I live in the U.S. and enjoy rather large protections 
regarding U.S. Constitutional rights to free speech and freedom to 
assemble and associate.

While some cracks in these vaunted rights and freedoms have appeared for 
Islamic or Arabic citizens as an expediency of war, a restoring backlash 
seems to be building adequate to keep my personal risks from online 
participation low enough to incurr for the moment.

How would you propose that we warn new Chinese users adequately that 
anything they post to a Wikimedia site can be used against them by 
agents of their government?

Would such warnings incurr any liability to the Wikimedia Foundation or 
its users from the more militant factions of the Chinese Government?

Personally I have no intentions of traveling to China anytime soon but 
other peoples who participate in our online communities may have 
different plans for the near or far future.   It would be extremely 
disruptive to have a Wikimania conducted in Beijing impacted by the 
highly televised arrest and show trial of vocal care free Wikimanians 
not protected by the armed forces of the United States of America.

regards,
lazyquasar