"Marcianüs Verdict Released!" by Munditenens Tresplet

After only five months on the docket, Marcianüs vs Davinescu, et. al. , has finally reached a conclusion. As reported earlier, the case stemmed from a disagreement between Viteu Marcianüs, a former citizen who wrote a biographical article about himself on TalossaWiki, and Alexandreu Davinescu, then Minister of Stuff and a current TalossaWiki administrator. Marcianüs, after renouncing his citizenship following what he, at the time,"percieved as personal hypocrisy from those on the other side of the Talossan political spectrum," wanted to remove any information about himself from his TalossaWiki entry, to distance himself from his past in Talossa. Newly appointed magistrate Dr. Txec Nordselva was assigned the case. Immediately following his renunciation, Marcianüs wiped his page completely, replacing it with a single paragraph in which he outlined his reasons for renouncing. Within minutes, upon realizing the edit, Davinescu undid the revision and restored the entry. Marcianüs disputed the matter, emailing Davinescu and asking him to wipe the article, leaving nothing but the paragraph andchronological infoboxes. Davinescu removed references to his personal life, but otherwise refused; he felt that the majority of the article was necessary to preserve the historical record. Davinescu cited TalossaWiki's privacy policy, which clearly states that all contributions to the wiki remain public.

Marcianüs retained Tim Asmourescu as counsel, and filed suit against Davinescu, the Ministry of Stuff, and the Government. The basis for the lawsuit was unclear, but eventually settled into a suggestion that because there was no legislation that specifically created the wiki, the government lacked the authority to retain any disputed information. Asmourescu also argued that the wiki's privacy policy cannot supersede the Fourth Covenant of Rights and Freedoms in OrgLaw, which contains a guarantee of privacy.

Davinescu argued in his reply that "[t]he Fourth Covenant cannot be held to comply to volunteered information, as a moment’s thought will show. Information willingly released into the public eye cannot be considered to be private: its owner has made it public." Because Marcianüs had created and uploaded material of his own free will and volition to a website that explicitly states that the uploader is relinquishing his rights to said material, Davinescu argued, the Fourth Covenant doesn't apply.

Davinescu called Marcianüs as a witness in the proceedings over his counsel's objections. The Cort ordered the Minister of Immigration to issue him a visitors visa. Marcianüs created a new account called "VM-LetMeGo", and outlined his disagreement towards being made to appear as a witness in his signature.

After most of Davinescu's questions raised sustained objections by plaintiff's counsel, however, Davinescu dismissed Marcianüs with thanks, as he felt he was unable to adequately continue his line of questioning. The Cort then moved to summations. Asmourescu began summation for the plaintiff, saying, "Your honor, before the court is a matter unforeseen by our founders, writers of the Organic Law and our most recent governments." He asserted that the TalossaWiki administrator isn't granted "authority to unilaterally make all editorial decisions", and that defendant Davinescu "claims quite a bit of authority for himself" though he was given no legal authority by the Ziu, who should have checks on his power. Furthermore, Asmourescu argued, all Marcianüs wants is autobiographical information removed; he doesn't dispute that there is historical relevancy in V's time as a Talossan citizen, and because of this, he isn't seeking to bar third-parties from writing their own article on Viteu.

Davinescu's reply summed up his arguments. He stated that any right to privacy was given up when the material was willingly uploaded. Further, Davinescu argued that any right to copyright was likewise voluntarily and explicitly given up, and that renouncing citizenship doesn't give one the right to "eradicate" all traces of their former life. In relation to thequestion of authority, he stated that in his view, the state has the full authority to "administer those properties it creates under the mandate of law," even if the Ziu doesn't explicitly create the program. And finally, he argued that the so called "right to be forgotten" has no foundation in Talossan law. Magistrate Nordselva, in his ruling, first determined that the Ministry of Stuff does possess the right to create and maintain the Wiki, and this right is based from Org.XII.6, reading "The Minister of Stuff shall prepare, at the behest of the Cosâ, the Seneschál, or on his own initiative, informative texts about the Kingdom of Talossa.”, as well as subsequent legislation.

Nordselva then applied four tests to determine whether Marcianüs' right to privacy was violated, examining whether the plaintiff's identity has been appropriated for the benefit of the defendant, whether the plaintiff has been "placed in a false light in the public eye", whether private facts about the plaintiff had been disclosed against his will, or whether there had been "unreasonable intrusion upon the seclusion or solitude of the plaintiff." In these questions, and in the question of privacy, the Cort ruled there had been no violation, and after discussing some other points raised by the parties, the Cort dismissed the case.

Still holding his visitors visa, Viteu made one final plea in a Wittenberg thread, stating that he would not appeal to the Uppermost Cort, asking only for this entire situation to go away. In his final request, he wished for the government to at least remove his picture from the article, even offering to exchange archived episodes of his Talossan News Program for the removal of his picture. "So there you have it folks," he wrote. "I leave Witt for the last time. I only ask that you recognize that your rights to privacy and to be forgotten to not exist in this state."

Alexandreu Davinescu replied, "With the legal challenge out of the way, I felt perfectly comfortable removing the picture from the page, deleting it entirely, and unlocking the page for future editing. It's very unfortunate that I had to wait so long to do so - the lawsuit entirely tied my hands, since acting earlier would have created a tragic precedent."