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Wikipedia:WikiLeaks is not part of Wikipedia

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For WikiLeaks' entry on the list of perennial sources, see Wikipedia:Reliable sources/Perennial sources § WikiLeaks.
WikiLeaks is not a Wikimedia project
WikiLeaks is not a Wikimedia project

WikiLeaks is not affiliated with Wikipedia or the Wikimedia Foundation in any way whatsoever.

"Wiki" is a generic word that anyone can use; it is not a brand name or trademark. A wiki is any website that allows the creation and editing of interlinked webpages via a web browser. There are many wikis in existence, run by various organizations, which contain various types of content; thus, albeit one of the largest and best-known examples, Wikipedia is only one wiki among many. The term "wiki" was coined in 1994–1995 by Ward Cunningham, the inventor of the concept, who also created its first implementation.[1] The term was thus already in existence prior to the advent of Wikipedia (6–7 years later, in 2001),[2] and the Wikimedia Foundation therefore does not claim ownership of the term in any way.[3]

The Wikimedia Foundation has officially stated that there is no relationship between WikiLeaks and Wikipedia or Wikimedia.[3] In an 11 August 2010 article in The Daily Telegraph (London), Wikipedia's co-founder Jimmy Wales stated that he has had no connection with the Wikileaks.org website.[4]

Despite its name, since at least May 2010, WikiLeaks includes no wiki features, like editing or commenting by readers.[5]

Domain name registration history

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The domain names wikileaks.com, wikileaks.net, wikileaks.us, wikileaks.biz, and wikileaks.mobi previously had a "Registrant"[6] or "Registrant Organization"[7] listed as Jimmy Wales' company Wikia, and some had Michael Davis (who is Chief Operating Officer of Wikia),[8] listed for "Registrant Name". These sites showed content from wikileaks.org. This is perhaps the basis for some of the confusion regarding Wikipedia and WikiLeaks; however, Wikia and the Wikimedia Foundation are for the most part separate organizations.

In response to a question on his talk page on 8 December 2010, Wales stated:[9]

To answer your question, when Wikileaks first launched they put out a press release calling themselves something like "the Wikipedia of secrets". We had no idea who they were, whether it was a scam or spam or who knows what, so some domain names were registered defensively. We contacted them immediately to see what was going on and they apologized for being careless with the Wikipedia name and everything was sorted right away with no problems... except for them actually concluding the technical aspects of the transfer.

Further, according to a previous statement by Wales on 1 October 2010:[10]

Wikia does not serve any of the sites. The CNAME records in DNS direct the traffic to www.wikileaks.org.
The domain names were legally transferred to Wikileaks a long time ago, but for unknown reasons, Wikileaks never completed the technical aspects of the transfer. Wikia has made multiple requests to them to do so, with no result yet. Mr. Assange has indicated that he is very busy right now, which seems likely to be true, given recent news events.

On 27 January 2011, the domain name registrations were finally assigned to Julian Assange.[11]

See also

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References

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  1. ^ See History of wikis
  2. ^ See History of Wikipedia
  3. ^ a b "What's in a name? In the case of 'wiki', lots of things". Wikimedia blog. Wikimedia Foundation. 9 December 2010. Retrieved 2010-12-12.
  4. ^ Richmond, Shane (11 August 2010). "Jimmy Wales: people think I'm responsible for Wikileaks". Media blog (The Daily Telegraph). London. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  5. ^ Gilson, Dave (19 May 2010). "WikiLeaks Gets A Facelift". Mother Jones. San Francisco. Retrieved 17 June 2010.
  6. ^ "WikiLeaks.com - WikiLeaks Information". DomainTools. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  7. ^ "WikiLeaks.us - WikiLeaks Information". DomainTools. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  8. ^ "User:Mdavis". Wikia Community Central. Wikia. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  9. ^ Wales, Jimbo (8 December 2010). "Diff of past revision of User talk:Jimbo Wales". Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2010-12-16.
  10. ^ Wales, Jimbo (1 October 2010). "Diff of past revision of Wikipedia:WikiLeaks is not part of Wikipedia". Wikipedia. Wikimedia Foundation. Retrieved 2010-12-01.
  11. ^ "Julian Assange Now Owns WikiLeaks.com". Domain Name Wire. 29 January 2011. Retrieved 2011-01-30.

Further reading

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