The Wikimedia Foundation and Internet Brands (IB) have settled a lawsuit over the recently-launched Wikivoyage site, which provides free, user-editable travel information. Back in August 2012, IB — the parent company of the existing site Wikitravel — sued two of its former volunteers over plans to use Creative Commons content from Wikitravel in Wikivoyage, threatening to derail the entire project. Wikimedia intervened to protect the volunteers and has now successfully obtained a court declaration “that Internet Brands had no proper basis to block the travel wiki project.”
Wikimedia and Internet Brands settle five-month lawsuit over new Wikivoyage site
The news comes on the one month anniversary of Wikivoyage’s launch and will be welcomed by contributors to the new site, many of whom have contributed to Wikitravel in the past — plans for the non-commercial site were first drawn up last year after administrators became frustrated with IB’s focus on content monetization. It will also serve as a potent warning to other companies using wiki-style technology, where the legal status of user-contributed content is always a crucial issue.
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