[new:AlexSchroeder:2005-05-06 14:12 UTC]
There used to be a discussion including email and forum posts on this page regarding WikiSpam by a Swiss company.  When they threatened me with legal action, I called some friends including a lawyer and they told me that while it might be possible to win in court, the issue was far from certain.  Swiss law protects people and companies from being publically shamed unless the issue was proven.  Now, with the wiki being an open system where anybody is invited to contribute, the onus falls on me to prove what kind of off-topic content is spam and what is not spam, maybe I would have to explain how Google's pagerank and wiki spam works together, how the spam is not welcome here, and that spamming is unethical.

Thus, pending further research, I decided to anonymize this page.  Once I had done that, I saw that many of my statements don't really mean much anymore, so I took them down, too.  Then I reaized that most of the replies by other people don't make much sense on their own, either, so I took them down, too.

By taking down the discussion I am certainly not implying that my initial assessment was wrong.  :)  I'm just doing this to protect my back while I consider my options.
I could, for example, search for other wiki and guestbook spam of theirs, and compile a list.  I could contact the owners of these other sites, and check whether they would be interested in some legal action.  I could also contact some local IT journalists and see whether they were interested in taking up the issue.  I haven't decided, yet. 

Basically, the legal situation is the following:

* The Swiss law on slander ("üble Nachrede"), [http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/311_0/a173.html StGB Art 173], might not be relevant here.  As a company, they are protected against wrong, misleading, or unnecessarily derogative statements ("wer andere [...] durch falsche, irreführende oder unnötig verletzende Äusserungen herabsetzt"), [http://www.admin.ch/ch/d/sr/241/a3.html UWG Art. 3] lit. a.  That explains why I need further research to substantiate any statements that involves identifying the offending party.

* Spam on my wiki being unethical advertising ("unlauter Wettbewerb") is covered by the guidelines of the swiss commission on ethical advertising ([http://www.lauterkeit.ch/pdf/grundsaetze.pdf PDF]) section 3.12.  These guidelines are not the law, however.  That could be the starting point, however.

* The claim that spam on my wiki being the misuse of my property ("sachfremd") would need to be substantiated.  I don't see much problems with that, but it means more work.  Where as we've had cases against email spam already, a case against wiki spam would be a novum.  That explains the legal risks.

I'll have to write a letter to the company involved as well, to make certain they understand that taking down this discussion is not an admitance of guilt.  I'm reserving myself the right to further actions on my part ("ich behalte mir jegliche mir gut scheinende Massnahmen vor").