Italian
Wikipedia blocked readers from its pages on Tuesday in protest over the future
of EU online copyright law.
Critics say
the rules, due to be voted on this week, could put an end to memes and remixes,
and require platforms to pay for linking to news.
Instead of
an encyclopaedia entry, visitors to any page on the Italian language Wikipedia
were greeted with a statement about the upcoming vote.
The editors
wrote that "Wikipedia itself would be at risk of closing".
"If the
proposal is approved, it may be impossible to share a newspaper article on
social networks or find it on a search engine," it said.
English-language
users of the site were not cut off from its articles - but instead saw a large
banner advert urging readers to contact their European representatives, or
MEPs, ahead of the vote.
Wikipedia is
one of the most visited sites on the internet, currently ranked fifth in the
world by traffic ranking site Alexa.
The
organisation has been a fierce opponent of the EU's proposed directive on
copyright in the digital single market, calling it "a serious threat to
our mission".
Two
particular parts of the new rules - articles 11 and 13 - have been the focus of
much criticism online.
Article 13
has been the most controversial, requiring websites to enforce copyright, even
on content uploaded by users.
Critics
believe this could mean that social media sites and others would have to check
every piece of content uploaded - a task that would be impossible for humans.
Instead, it
would require automated copyright checking systems, put in place by each
company - a potentially expensive process.
Such systems
have a high error rate, and have already been controversial on platforms, like
YouTube, where they have been implemented.
Such systems
have been labelled "censorship machines" or an "upload
filter" by critics of article 13.
It has also
led to fears that popular memes, remixes, parodies and other material which use
small amounts of copyrighted material could become a thing of the past.
If #Article13 passes it will change the way
that the Internet works, from free and creative sharing, to one where anything
can be instantly removed, by computers. #CensorshipMachine
https://t.co/QgcUmCabEH pic.twitter.com/UOIZwxRFWh
— Open Rights Group (@OpenRightsGroup) June
28, 2018
The draft
document does include a specific exemption for "non-for-profit online
encyclopaedias", but that has failed to allay fears.
Jimmy Wales,
a founder of Wikipedia, was among dozens of leading technology figures who
openly opposed the law, alongside Tim Berners-Lee, inventor of the World Wide
Web.
A 'link tax'
Article 11
of the proposed law requires online platforms to pay publishers a fee if they
link to their news content.
The intent
is to drive traffic to the home pages of news sites that, at the moment, have
their work extensively linked to by huge organisations such as Google and
Facebook.
Critics,
though, have labelled it a "link tax" which would hand new, broad
rights to large publishers and hurt smaller start-ups.
They also
say the article fails to clearly define what constitutes a link and could be
manipulated by governments to curb freedom of speech.
A collection
of 169 European academics wrote that it was "a bad piece of
legislation" which would "impede the free flow of information that is
of vital importance to democracy".
Linking to free web content is legal, EU
court rules
Axel Voss, a
German MEP and key figure in creating the proposed law, defended it, saying the
"big platforms" were behind a misinformation campaign.
"We
have, at the moment, an extreme imbalance in the whole copyright system,"
he said.
He said that
creating links "for a private purpose" was explicitly excluded from
the law, which would only affect commercial use.
Mr Voss also
rubbished claims of an "upload filter", saying the proposal would
only affect 1%-5% of the internet.
He also said
the rules would apply to "only those that actually publish copyright
protected content" and earn money from it.
If the
European Parliament and Council adopt the draft text, individual governments
must then act to implement the directive in their national laws.
In the case
of the UK, it would only become law if it comes into force before Brexit
"exit day" - 29 March 2019.
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