Wikipedia has sent a cease and desist letter to a friend, what should she do?

5 points by imazio 4 years ago | 6 comments

Hi, a friend has received a letter from Wikipedia demanding for a change of an Instagram account handled by my friend. It’s handler is a game of words that sounds like Wikipedia. My friend is scared as it is the main source of income. Any useful advice??

AnimalMuppet 4 years ago |

This might be someone pretending to be Wikipedia. What legal basis does Wikipedia have for telling someone to change something on Instagram? (Unless it's removing Wikipedia content, which would be a reasonable - and legally enforceable - request.)

imazio 4 years ago | |

I am actually surprised as well. It is because the handler sounds like “wikipedia”, but it includes a bad word (not in English though)

pwg 4 years ago |

The proper advice here is: consult an attorney.

imazio 4 years ago | |

Thanks for the advice, I said the same thing. They are scared and thinking about giving up and bending to the request. I had hopes on someone providing some argument convincing enough as to consider fighting this (unreasonable request from my humble point of view).

slater 4 years ago | |

^ That.

imazio 4 years ago | | |

It is the obvious answer, I agree. But if your main source of income is at risk, there is a lot of uncertainty around standing up. Even if you think it is right.