In 1990, Bavarian actor Walter Sedlymayr was murdered by two business associates, Wolfgang Werle and Manfred Lauber. Both of these men have recently been paroled for the crime and one of them is suing Wikipedia. He (the plaintiff’s name is unreleased) has sent a cease and desist notice to the German and English versions of Wikipedia, as well as an Austrian ISP, to remove his name from articles about the crime.
German law protects private citizens from unwanted publicity. When the two men were tried and convicted of murdering Sedlymayr, they became public citizens and were subsequently released from the protection of that law. The law also states, however, that once 15 years from the event that made someone famous has lapsed, their private citizen status is returned.
Since it has been over 15 years since the 1990 murder, his lawyers are claiming that it is proper for his name to be removed from the public eye, and hence, the Wikipedia page.
It looks like the case may be going to the European Court of Justice, where the issue seems to be that of free speech versus the citizen’s right to privacy. Wikipedia currently appears willing to put up a fight over this, as a weighty precedent hangs in the balance.
While protecting the privacy of private citizens is important, censoring history is typically a poor maneuver. Though the issue is contentious in Germany, it is not likely to impact the US version of Wikipedia, since a similar lawsuit in the States would violate the First Amendment.
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