German Wikipedia up and running again

Lutz Heilmann http://www.lutz-heilmann.info abandoned his lawsuit against Wikimedia Deutschland e.V., the charity that runs the German Wikipedia.de site. In a statement Heilman said that the articles containing false and defamatory details against him were removed and as a result he would refrain from further legal action against Wikimedia. He also said he was sorry for the inconvenience users had experienced because of his actions.

Pressure mounted on the left wing MP after a storm of protest among German Wiki users and bloggers. More than 300 member signed up to a facebook group in 2-3 days which is remarkable given that Germans rather use a different social platform. Furthermore, a protest website http://protest.blog.de was launched.

For Wikimedia the whole action turned out to be a great success story. Daily donations increased

German Politician blocks Wikipedia.de

Wikipedia.de was blocked today after a German politician, Lutz Heilmann, was granted an injunction against the domain owner Wikimedia Deutschland e.V. which is subject to German jurisdiction.

There are a few websites in English who cover the story. And a facebook group has also been launched.

According to tagesschau.de all German Wikipedia articles are available on de.wikipedia.org. So the injunction is useless and Mr Heilmann shot himself in the foot.

Wikipedia's lawyers revealed that Heilmann attacked details with regard to his career and personal life. These details are subject of the injunction so you may get in trouble when quoting them. But I'm sure it's to do with his past in the GDR...
 

Neverthelss, please send protest emails to lutz.heilmann@bundestag.de

His website was down but keep trying http://www.lutz-heilmann.info/


You can also call him if you are brave enough +49 30-227-70788

Always be polite but make your voice heard.