How the EU Copyright Proposal Will Hurt the Web and Wikipedia (wikimedia.org)

Wikimedia, which operates Wikipedia, chimes in on the EU copyright debacle: Our movement is working to promote freedom online for the benefit of all. Our efforts in this public policy realm are all the more important in an era of increasing restrictions on free speech and free access to knowledge across the globe, which directly threaten the mission and vision of Wikimedia and its projects, such as Wikipedia. This is why we strongly oppose the proposed EU Copyright Directives and urge the Members of the European Parliament to reconsider proceeding with the version recently adopted by the Legal Affairs Committee. We are concerned because these flawed proposals hurt everyone's rights to freedom of expression and Europe's ability to improve the welfare of its citizens online. Next week, we expect the European Parliament to vote in plenary on whether to proceed with the version adopted by the Committee. If the Members of the European Parliament reject it, there will be another opportunity to fix much of the current proposal's broken requirements. Now may be the last opportunity to improve the directive.

The requirement for platforms to implement upload filters is a serious threat for freedom of expression and privacy. Our foundational vision depends on the free exchange of knowledge across the entirety of the web, and beyond the boundaries of the Wikimedia projects. A new exclusive right allowing press publishers to restrict the use of news snippets will make it more difficult to access and share information about current events in the world, making it harder for Wikipedia contributors to find citations for articles online. The proposal does not support user rights, is missing strong safeguards for the public domain, and does not create exceptions that would truly empower people to participate in research and culture. We believe that enactment of this copyright package will significantly decrease in the amount of content that will be freely accessible to all across the globe.

Comments

Re:Give Europe what it wants.

[CrimsonAvenger]

Absent the USA's help, the USSR may have won.

Might want to find out how much help we gave the USSR.
Hint: we sent them 10000+ tanks, and more airplanes than tanks. For a start...

The nation that lost the most people was the USSR. They lost ~14% of their population, because they fought the most brutal, relentless part of the war against the Nazi regime.

All too true. Which doesn't invalidate the OP's statement that they were allied with the Germans at the beginning of the War. Always remember that when Poland was invaded by Germany from the west, it was also invaded by the Soviets from the East....