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Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

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21–30 of 204 posts

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#21

As an EU citizen, I hope large portions of the internet will just block us. A couple of days without YouTube, Wikipedia and other services would create sufficient outrage to put pressure on the EU for introducing these idiotic laws. I mean, GDPR is bad enough for start ups, but Article 13?

my 2 cents: A few days of outrage will do absolutely nothing to stop or change the law. AFAICT, many the EU bureaucrats and politicians fervently believe that they are doing the right thing here, even if it's clearly bonkers.

It's like Brexit that way.

Also: as said elsewhere, article 13 is probably all good news for YouTube, so I doubt that they do anything deeply confrontational. Plus, even if they did, they would just be portrayed as evil lobbying/scheming bastards arm twisting the EU into giving them what they want.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#22

As an EU citizen, I hope large portions of the internet will just block us. A couple of days without YouTube, Wikipedia and other services would create sufficient outrage to put pressure on the EU for introducing these idiotic laws. I mean, GDPR is bad enough for start ups, but Article 13?

GDPR and Article 13 (in The Directive on Copyright) are totally different and unrelated things.

I happen to be a small business owner in the EU and I have many customers who are the same. We all have registered with the ICO (UK) for something like £60 pa and filled in a short questionnaire. We have read the clear guidance on what records to keep and what to not keep - it's not rocket science. That is GDPR for most small businesses. Now, if your business is predicated on building profiles on people or pestering them on the phone or flogging ads etc then I can't help you there - it may be a pain.

Now Article 13: It is designed to try and make the likes of YouTube responsible for not carrying copyrighted works by putting the onus back on them. I believe they hide behind carrier status. I understand that A13 looks a bit like an anti-meme effort but it isn't because that is generally covered by parody or reasonable use regulations.

In the end, are you really sure you want the world to block us?

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#23
post #22

As an EU citizen, I hope large portions of the internet will just block us. A couple of days without YouTube, Wikipedia and other services would create sufficient outrage to put pressure on the EU for introducing these idiotic laws. I mean, GDPR is bad enough for start ups, but Article 13?

GDPR and Article 13 (in The Directive on Copyright) are totally different and unrelated things. I happen to be a small business owner in the EU and I have many customers who are the same. We all have registered with the ICO (UK) for something like £60 pa and filled in a short questionnaire. We have read the clear guidance on what records to keep and what to not keep - it's not rocket science. That is GDPR for most sm…

> In the end, are you really sure you want the world to block us?

Yes. Let's end the cycle of pretending that we can prevent information from being free.

Copyright is a dinosaur of an idea that belongs in the annals of history and out of the present.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#24

It is interesting to me that only four of them are protesting—German, Czech, Danish, and Slovak—by blacking out their sites on 21 March 2019 in opposition to the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Why is it that other EU Wikipedia language editions like French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish not joining in the protests? Did they come up with a different conclusion on the potential impact of the new copyright d…

I support their point of view and agree with their protest, but one reason against this could be the potential politicizing and weaponisation of Wikipedia. Do you want one of the largest collectives of human information to take sides (in any debate) and selectively remove its service?

I think I would prefer a banner or a landing page more as it doesn't introduce any barrier to the information they provide.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#26
post #24

It is interesting to me that only four of them are protesting—German, Czech, Danish, and Slovak—by blacking out their sites on 21 March 2019 in opposition to the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Why is it that other EU Wikipedia language editions like French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish not joining in the protests? Did they come up with a different conclusion on the potential impact of the new copyright d…

I support their point of view and agree with their protest, but one reason against this could be the potential politicizing and weaponisation of Wikipedia. Do you want one of the largest collectives of human information to take sides (in any debate) and selectively remove its service? I think I would prefer a banner or a landing page more as it doesn't introduce any barrier to the information they provide.

I assume Wikipedia is protesting because it directly affects them. I don't see how it's problematic to advocate for themselves sometimes.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#27
post #4
post #3

Earlier quoted context omitted.

I am not sure why you are being down-voted. I know people have a distaste for political insights in general here, but it seems apt to have comments like these on an article about protesting a governing body. Why is German Wikipedia having to have a blackout? They are unhappy with the EU restricting their freedoms.

I downvoted it because the comment has no substance besides "EU bad". It adds nothing of value to the discussion. Explain why the EU is an "oversized bureaucracy".

> I downvoted it because the comment has no substance besides "EU bad". It adds nothing of value to the discussion.

A pretty unfair characterization. I found value in of itself, even if that value was merely "this opinion exists"

> Explain why the EU is an "oversized bureaucracy".

In order to explain why you must define how big a bureaucracy must be in order to be considered oversized. Unless two parties can agree on some ground level items, you can't hope to have a productive conversation in good faith.

I am assuming you are at least starting from the position that the EU is indeed a bureaucracy? If not, then allow me to at least explain why I believe it to be so: the EU is very formal and rigid in it's mode of action. It loves process, and it loves sticking to it. It's full of, ironically, idealistic technocrats.

It is, in theory, "oversized" because of the mere principle that bureaucratic processes can have sweeping changes that affect every member. (as an aside: often times without those members having been able to sufficiently voice their opinion, concerns, or have proper representation, thus also making it undemocratic in my opinion. Representation is democratically elected, but it is unbalanced, and all votes don't have equal influence)

Many political thinkers believe the EU should have never expanded beyond Western and Northern Europe, because, among numerous other reasons, the economies and cultures were too different. Indeed, the members that typically have the most grievances with the EU body are those neglected eastern European states, or those of the Mediterranean, namely Greece. In fact one could argue the Euro in of itself brought many of Greece's financial problems onto itself, much less the unfair-to-Greece trade mandates of the EU, but that's a story for another day.

All of this to say, there is plenty of reasoning to argue either way that the EU is "too big" or "just right", but ultimately you have to define what "too big" is, and agree on what you believe the function of governments should be.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#28
post #24

It is interesting to me that only four of them are protesting—German, Czech, Danish, and Slovak—by blacking out their sites on 21 March 2019 in opposition to the proposed EU Copyright Directive. Why is it that other EU Wikipedia language editions like French, Italian, Polish, Portuguese and Spanish not joining in the protests? Did they come up with a different conclusion on the potential impact of the new copyright d…

I support their point of view and agree with their protest, but one reason against this could be the potential politicizing and weaponisation of Wikipedia. Do you want one of the largest collectives of human information to take sides (in any debate) and selectively remove its service? I think I would prefer a banner or a landing page more as it doesn't introduce any barrier to the information they provide.

> Do you want one of the largest collectives of human information to take sides (in any debate) and selectively remove its service

When that debate is about access to that information, definitely, yes.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#29
I think this is great, but I think it would be funnier to just replace all the words with Klingon. That way, things would look like they work, but upon closer inspection, not actually work. The effect would be frustration, and could be made worse if done for a random amount of time.

Re: Four Wikipedias to ‘Black Out’ over EU Copyright Directive

#30
post #25

"Fixing" the page (return to normal): 1. In the style sheet, remove: color: #111 !important; background: #111 !important; border: 1px #111 solid !important; 2. In the HTML, remove: background:#000;color:#000 That's all I could find on a few page visits.

alternatively: use reader mode on firefox. this may not enable everything but is at least you can read it...

(I'm somewhat conflicted on using and/or helping circumventing wikipedias efforts)

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