The 'no original information' rule is a very good one and ensures that the information contained has been reviewed and referenced properly.
What is the "No original information" rule?
It means that you cannot make a claim on Wikipedia that is unsupported by an already-published legitimate source. It does have a downside, I had a similar experience to Peter in that I have had corrections rejected by editors because although I knew a piece of information to be incorrect, I could not provide a citation to prove that my version was any more accurate.
The upside is that it immediately filters out all the nonsense claims that otherwise people would tend to make. Wikipedia tries to be a rigorous body of academic standard work and the editors will go to great lengths to ensure that this remains the case. It can be very interesting to read the discussion page behind an article to see how this process works in practice.
