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AMSTERDAM, Netherlands - A Dutch royal couple acknowledges altering a Wikipedia entry about a 2003 scandal that forced the prince to renounce his claim to the throne.

Prince Johan Friso, son of the reigning Queen Beatrix, and Princess Mabel of Oranje-Nassau are the latest to be embarrassed in a spate of discoveries of vanity changes to Wikipedia entries. Such self-serving amendments are frowned upon in the Web encyclopedia that “anyone can edit.”

(Full Article)

To be fair though, a lot of information on Wikipedia is incorrect or should never have been publicized. I’ve been rather shocked and disgusted at the number of articles that have popped up people with detailed information in regards to their private lives and contact information. What right does Wiki have to publicize that? Wikipedia claims that the information is garnered from the information provided to WHOIS, but really, if someone is doing a WHOIS search then they have a purpose to seek that information. Flaunting that information about and posting it will-nilly for no other purpose than to pad your pages and entice people to misuse that information is wrong. Last I heard, taking the WHOIS information and publishing on other sites was not allowed and unethical.

So the Dutch Royals sought to edit what they felt was incorrect? Hell, they won’t be the first.