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Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

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Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#2
Unfortunately, there isn’t a vibrant free web. Wikipedia is about the only major non-ad supported website that normal people visit. Most user content is probably on Facebook or Medium. Most breaking news is first available on twitter. Even independent websites, most likely have Google analytics and Google ads.

From a European point of view, the current copyright situation is just a wealth transfer from European companies who have the copyrights, to American advertising companies.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#3

Unfortunately, there isn’t a vibrant free web. Wikipedia is about the only major non-ad supported website that normal people visit. Most user content is probably on Facebook or Medium. Most breaking news is first available on twitter. Even independent websites, most likely have Google analytics and Google ads. From a European point of view, the current copyright situation is just a wealth transfer from European compa…

My thought exactly. If there is a `vibrant free web`, I can't see it.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#4
Wikipedia is contributing to the slow death of what could have been, and almost was, a web of independent pages maintained by individuals and groups. I have had a recurring experience of skimming a Wikipedia article, only to get the feeling that the text is familiar - then tracking it down to the book or article that it was lifted from, without attribution. If a "vibrant free web" means routine copyright theft committed by a homogenizing, centralized collective established as some kind of anonymous authority, I can do without it.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#5

Unfortunately, there isn’t a vibrant free web. Wikipedia is about the only major non-ad supported website that normal people visit. Most user content is probably on Facebook or Medium. Most breaking news is first available on twitter. Even independent websites, most likely have Google analytics and Google ads. From a European point of view, the current copyright situation is just a wealth transfer from European compa…

Taxing ads seems like a better intervention than what is proposed.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#6

Unfortunately, there isn’t a vibrant free web. Wikipedia is about the only major non-ad supported website that normal people visit. Most user content is probably on Facebook or Medium. Most breaking news is first available on twitter. Even independent websites, most likely have Google analytics and Google ads. From a European point of view, the current copyright situation is just a wealth transfer from European compa…

> Wikipedia is about the only major non-ad supported website that normal people visit.

Which costs $69 million per year to operate, has 300+ employees and requires six million donations. Your example also isn't free.

> Most user content is probably on Facebook or Medium

Medium is less than 1% the size of Wordpress, both in terms of traffic and amount of content. The majority of all content on Wordpress sites is ad free.

The consumer is paying for all of it in one manner or another. If it's a donation, it's coming out of your pocket. If it's an ad, it's data about you being monetized. There is no such thing as free if you're talking about something the size of Wikipedia or similar services.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#7

Wikipedia is contributing to the slow death of what could have been, and almost was, a web of independent pages maintained by individuals and groups. I have had a recurring experience of skimming a Wikipedia article, only to get the feeling that the text is familiar - then tracking it down to the book or article that it was lifted from, without attribution. If a "vibrant free web" means routine copyright theft commit…

Please take the next step https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_Copyright_Viola...

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#8
post #7

Wikipedia is contributing to the slow death of what could have been, and almost was, a web of independent pages maintained by individuals and groups. I have had a recurring experience of skimming a Wikipedia article, only to get the feeling that the text is familiar - then tracking it down to the book or article that it was lifted from, without attribution. If a "vibrant free web" means routine copyright theft commit…

Please take the next step https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_Copyright_Viola...

Nearly 2000 words on how I can police their website for them? No, thanks. If they took this problem seriously they would build a system to catch copy-paste before it went live on their site.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#9
Article 13 is the key one, mandating upload filtering. This has all sorts of side effects - suddenly you can't make a Dropbox style file sharing site without implementing pre-emptive filtering. You can't rely on notify-and-takedown.

Article 11 potentially has huge implications for social media sites; suddenly a user posting a news article link with a quote becomes a copyright liability.

All the worry that was focused on the GDPR should be focused on this instead, in my opinion.

Re: Wikimedia warns EU copyright reform threatens the ‘vibrant free web’

#10
post #7

Wikipedia is contributing to the slow death of what could have been, and almost was, a web of independent pages maintained by individuals and groups. I have had a recurring experience of skimming a Wikipedia article, only to get the feeling that the text is familiar - then tracking it down to the book or article that it was lifted from, without attribution. If a "vibrant free web" means routine copyright theft commit…

Please take the next step https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wikipedia:Text_Copyright_Viola...

Wikipedia should verify the copyright before allowing changes. It should not be the publishers responsibility to enforce the copyright. Wikipedia should be responsible because they decided they wanted to allow anyone to edit. They should hire moderators, and if they cannot moderate, they should not run a platform of theft.
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