While Wikipedia has been trading on its image of free spirited voluntary service, the outfit has decided to set the hounds on a website which is critical of the online encyclopaedia.

According to the human rights group the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Wikipedia have sent around legal letters to a bunch of artists who created a Wikipedia article and invited the general public to add to it, following Wikipedia's standards of credibility and verifiability.

The artists, Scott Kildall and Nathaniel Stern, created a noncommercial website that documents the project, called Wikipedia Art. The domain name for the project: wikipediaart.org. When the Wales Mafia heard of the project they claimed that since  "Wikipedia" is a trademark owned by the Wikimedia Foundation, the artists have demanded that the artists give up the domain name peaceably or it will attempt to take it by force.

The EFF said that Wikipedia should know better because the site is entirely noncommercial, which puts it beyond the reach of US trademark law. To make matters worse the artists' use of the mark is an obvious fair use. Wikipedia Art uses the "Wikipedia" mark to refer to the project: a critical comment on Wikipedia and creativity.

Since the site does not look anything like, Wikipedia and the artists have done nothing to suggest Wikipedia endorses their work, it is protected by the First Amendment. Wikipedia's antics have miffed the EFF quite a bit because in the past the group has represented the organisation in the past. Looks like they might want to think that policy through as it only seems to be Free Speech when the Wale's Mafia are doing the talking.