Wikimedia Warns EU Copyright Reform Threatens the 'Vibrant Free Web' (techcrunch.com)

The Wikimedia Foundation has sounded a stark warning against a copyright reform proposal in Europe that's due to be voted on by the European Parliament next week. From a report: In the post, also emailed to TechCrunch, Maria Sefidari Huici, chair of the Wikimedia Foundation, writes: "Next week, the European Parliament will decide how information online is shared in a vote that will significantly affect how we interact in our increasingly connected, digital world. We are in the last few moments of what could be our last opportunity to define what the Internet looks like in the future. The next wave of proposed rules under consideration by the European Parliament will either permit more innovation and growth, or stifle the vibrant free web that has allowed creativity, innovation, and collaboration to thrive. This is significant because copyright does not only affect books and music, it profoundly shapes how people communicate and create on the internet for years to come."

Backers of the reform proposals argue they will help European creatives be fairly recompensed for their work. But critics argue the proposals are not balanced and will chill the creative freedoms of web users to share and comment on content online.

Comments

Re:That's a doozy

[VeryFluffyBunny]

Yes, current proposed IP laws in a range of countries favour large, dominant corporations at the expense of newcomers and hobbyists. The corporations will be fine without these laws but we'll all be much worse off with them. This is all the work of the UN's WIPO https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/..., which has been steadily encroaching on public domain and fair-use works since the 1970s. They want corporations to own everything that's ours, i.e. our culture and knowledge, and get rich from renting it all back to us.