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Four Wikipedias To 'Black Out' Over EU Copyright Directive (wikimediafoundation.org)
Sherwin Siy and Jan Gerlach, writing for the Wikimedia Foundation: Volunteer editor communities in four language Wikipedias -- German, Czech, Danish, and Slovak -- have decided to black out the sites on 21 March in opposition to the current version of the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Those language editions of Wikipedia will redirect all visitors to a banner about the directive, blocking access to content on Wikipedia for 24 hours. A final vote on the directive is expected on 26 March.
These independent language communities decided to black out in the same way most decisions are made on Wikipedia -- through discussion and consensus, something summarized in a statement from the German Wikipedia volunteer community: "Each of these independent Wikipedia communities has been engaging in public online discussions as to their course of action, and voting on whether and how to protest. They have done this according to their own rules of governance."
These independent language communities decided to black out in the same way most decisions are made on Wikipedia -- through discussion and consensus, something summarized in a statement from the German Wikipedia volunteer community: "Each of these independent Wikipedia communities has been engaging in public online discussions as to their course of action, and voting on whether and how to protest. They have done this according to their own rules of governance."
The last big blackout on Wikipedia was when SOPA occurred. I think the effectiveness of Wikipedia going down every time something political incident occurs will make it lose it's effectiveness and the copyrighters will just make their own encyclopedia. Wikipedia will still make you an unperson for the crime of being "not notable".
The more people all over the EU will notice such draconian EU laws.
The EU should embrace freedoms and innovation.
Not add to more EU gov censorship and tax.
Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
Well, they write the articles. Do you?
Draconian copyright is the scourge of trying to build a free dictionary. So it is directly relevant to what they do.
IS that really long enough for a hear say site? By Wikipedia's own policy originality is not allowed as all article have to have an outside reference. This is done to avoid legal challenges. Yet many have a subtle political, religious and other erroneous bias. Think about that.
I bet both the EU commission and parliament are snickering at this "announcement". They can't wait for things like Wikipedia to disappear by themselves and save them the effort to just ban them.
Still better than pinterest stinking up everything, especially image results. If I see a Wikipedia link then I know I'm getting something useful when I click it, if I see something for pinterest I can basically guarentee that it won't take me to where to the information I'm interested in. Google Image Search results, click a pinterest image and 9 times out of 10 it won't be on that page and in fact will be almost impossible to find. Pinterest just needs to be straight up banned from Google until they link to the actual content they claim.
This is just more bullshit by nationalists acting as Putin's useful idiots trying to teardown the EU.
They've succeeded in isolating the UK from the EU with Brexit and are now moving on fresh pastures.
The only people that seem to be opposed to the new copyright law is Google, because they make money off of copyright infringement on YouTube. I have yet to find any aspect of the law I find "chilling". Perhaps someone here can illuminate me?
I'll bite:
"Worse, the final draft of Article 11 has no exceptions to protect small and noncommercial services, including Wikipedia".
"goodbye and hello, as always" ~Prince Corwin, from Zelazny's Amber series
What about all the authors of the information these few editors are denying voice by taking Wikipedia hostage for a day?
The point is to drive home the fact that if these copyright rules are implemented by member states in the intended form, a hell of a lot more damage will be done to the wikis than just being down for one day. Article 13 in particular will screw over an immense number of sites, not just Wikipedia: pretty much any web site that deals with user-uploaded content.
Wikipedia's article about the Directive on Copyright in the Digital Single Market has useful information and pointers, such as the procedure file, itself pointing (in section "documentation gateway") to many documents, including:
- Committee report tabled for plenary, 1st reading/single reading (PDF in top right corner of frame)
- Text adopted by Parliament, partial vote at 1st reading/single reading
Of course we do. Do you think this kind of blackout has the approval of all the people who contributed to wikipedia ?
I do not really get what is the real problem for wikipedia with this directive, when you take into account the WP:COPYVIO policy which about any wikipedia editor knows about.