Wikipedia:Account suspensions/Rickyboy
- 09:14, July 18, 2005, user:Cyrius blocked Rickyboy (talk · contribs · block log) (expires indefinite) (vandalism via copyright infringement, no other edits of substance)
- I got two emails from Rickyboy about this. Uncle Ed 20:27, July 18, 2005 (UTC)
- He made 90 edits since July 10th. Uncle Ed 20:29, July 18, 2005 (UTC)
- Since when does copyviol equal vandalism serious enough to warrant an indefinite ban? Can Cyrius elaborate on the reasons why Rickboy was blocked? --khaosworks 22:41, July 18, 2005 (UTC)
- Yeah, why not just a week? Uncle Ed 00:59, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
- He uploaded copyrighted materials without permission. He then lied about the source of the material, claiming to have created it himself. When I re-questioned him about the (at the time) only image that was definitely sourced to World Book Online, he proceeded to re-add the image while blanking a large portion of the article. The account has engaged in almost no other activity besides uploading the images and adding them to articles. We permanently block accounts that are used solely for vandalism. This is vandalism of the "get Wikipedia sued by a competitor" kind. -- Cyrius|✎ 04:19, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
- It seems to me that sanction is required, but a perma-block on a (seemingly) new user - he's only been around for a week, right? - who may need to be educated instead of beaten down seems a mite disproportionate. How about a week, as Ed suggested, and see if he gets the hint? --khaosworks 04:23, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
- He's not new. He had previously been using the account Richardr443 and also uses the IP address 24.9.112.127. There's some slight overlap in the usage related to the article Victoria (waterlily) that points at them all being the same, and that account has also uploaded suspiciously World Bookian images. The account's first non-deleted edits came at the end of January, when he uploaded this image, which conveniently said where it was copied from without permission. His next edits added a few more unsourced images, and then he went on a spree of vandalizing with the {{wikify}} tag, as incredible as that sounds. He also repeatedly recreated Letter writing after VfD said to transwiki the article, resulting in its protection as a deleted page. This comment on his talk page sums up why I don't think he can be trusted at all in any reasonably short time frame: "Besides, even if they were violations of copyright law, they would still be justified because people shouldn't have to pay to learn things". He's had almost half a year to learn what's legally acceptable and what's not. -- Cyrius|✎ 05:50, 19 July 2005 (UTC)
- It seems to me that sanction is required, but a perma-block on a (seemingly) new user - he's only been around for a week, right? - who may need to be educated instead of beaten down seems a mite disproportionate. How about a week, as Ed suggested, and see if he gets the hint? --khaosworks 04:23, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
- Since when does copyviol equal vandalism serious enough to warrant an indefinite ban? Can Cyrius elaborate on the reasons why Rickboy was blocked? --khaosworks 22:41, July 18, 2005 (UTC)
- Sounds good to me. If he wants to straighten out, he'll let us know on his user talk page. Uncle Ed 14:25, July 19, 2005 (UTC)
- He promised to be good, I unblocked him, then he cleaned up his user page July 26 and did nothing else since. Uncle Ed 16:35, August 1, 2005 (UTC)
Update: This user has since become known as Primetime (talk · contribs · deleted contribs · nuke contribs · logs · filter log · block user · block log). His dozens of sock accounts are described at Wikipedia:Long term abuse/Primetime. His style hasn't changed: first denying the violation, then saying it doesn't matter, then promising to be good. -Will Beback 06:46, 8 June 2006 (UTC)