Wikipedia self-blocks to protest a law that threatens its existence – 04/07/2018

A controversial copyright reform proposal, to be voted tomorrow, July 5, at noon in the European Parliament, threatens the existence of the Wikimedia Foundation, a non-profit organization that promotes The digital encyclopedia In protest, they decided to block access to Wikipedia content, they said in a statement posted on the site.

"We ask all members of the European Parliament to vote against the current text democracy is ensured in the legislative process," says the free encyclopedia.

"Since 2013, creators and citizens have been asking the European Union to update copyright and adapt its management to the digital age." Wikimedia affiliates in the United States EU have presented viable proposals, such as the extension of panorama freedom for the whole of the EU and the protection of the public domain, to protect and help those who create content to protect their work. "

As stated Wikipedia, this proposal, if approved," would seriously undermine the open internet we know today "," threatening freedom online and imposing new filters, barriers and restrictions to access the web. "

Similarly, they ensure that the sanction of this law would only" actions like share news in social networks or access them der via a search engine would become more "

" We want to continue to provide an open work, free, collaborative and free with a verifiable content. " e. We call on all members of the European Parliament to vote against the current text, to open it for discussion and to consider the many proposals of the Wikimedia movement to protect access to knowledge; among them, the elimination of Articles 11 and 13, the extension of the panorama freedom to the whole of the EU and the preservation of the public domain ", they specify in a statement published on its website.

Incidents in particular threaten the existence of Wikipedia. The first, provided for in Article 11, aims to "protect press publications in relation to digital uses", but it does so by limiting access to information and knowledge. To be able to link or reference a press article as a source on a non-profit platform such as Wikipedia, you would have to ask each news editor for permission in each particular case.

While Article 13 is a threat to online platforms such as Wikipedia. Its approval would require all websites that allow their community to actively participate in the construction of the Internet (sharing of code, images, text, sound or other creations subject to copyright law). Author) to install automatic filtering tools Contributions from their contributors to databases on copyright.

For their part, MEPs consulted on this subject have the responsibility to make it clear that the initiative will not end up damaging the interests of the popular digital encyclopedia. "Wikipedia is wrong, because this proposal would affect only commercial web pages," they said.

Until now, dozens of people relevant in the field of information technology were strongly opposed to this law – among them, the creator of the World Wide Web, Tim Berners-Lee, and the Internet pioneer, Vinton Cerf, 169 academics, 145 organizations for human rights, freedom of the press, scientific research and technological development; and the Wikimedia Foundation, the non-profit organization that promotes, among other projects, the free knowledge of this encyclopedia.