Stephen LaPorte is the General Counsel at the Wikimedia Foundation, the global nonprofit that supports Wikipedia and the Wikimedia free knowledge projects. 

Stephen began at the Wikimedia Foundation in 2012, and he has held several leadership roles in the Foundation’s Legal department, most recently as the Deputy General Counsel covering a range of legal issues including copyright, trademarks, governance, and public policy. In his past roles he has led several high profile initiatives to protect access to knowledge and defend the rights of the hundreds of thousands of volunteer contributors that edit Wikipedia and the Wikimedia projects. 

Stephen is also an active contributor to WikipediaWikisource, and free software projects. His open source projects include interactive, real time, visualizations of collaboration on Wikipedia, including co-creating Listen to Wikipedia and a weekly newsletter of the most edited articles on Wikipedia.

Stephen received his BA from the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, and his JD from the University of California, Hastings College of the Law.

Profiles — Личные истории

Other members of Executive Team

Courtney Bass Sherizen
Chief Talent and Culture Officer, Executive Team
Maryana Iskander
Maryana Iskander
Chief Executive Officer, Executive Team
Anusha Alikhan
Chief Communications Officer, Communications

Recent posts by Stephen LaPorte View all

EU copyright vote leaves the future of online participation uncertain

The European Parliament’s September 12 vote on the proposed Copyright Directive was a missed opportunity to improve copyright, after many years of discussion: Two years ago, the European Commission set out to modernize copyright laws across the EU with a flawed proposal with potential to improve. This proposal was referred to several committees in the….

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Launching the Wikimedia Public Policy site

The Wikimedia Foundation is excited to introduce the new Wikimedia Public Policy site. Public policy is vital for a world where everyone can freely access, share, create, and remix knowledge.

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