Försöker du ta dig in på spanska eller italienska versionen av Wikipedia så kommer du mötas av en vägg. En vägg av text, alltså. Båda sidorna har stängt ner temporärt i protest mot de nya copyright-lagarna EU-parlamentet kommer rösta på under morgondagen. I texten vädjas EU-parlamentariker att rösta nej till förslagen.

Instead of updating the copyright laws in Europe to promote everyone's participation in the information society, it threatens online freedom and creates barriers to accessing the Net by imposing new barriers, filters and restrictions. If the proposal is approved, it may be impossible to share a newspaper article on social networks or find it on a search engine. Wikipedia itself would risk to close.

Det handlar förstås om Article 11 och Article 13, som i folkmun kallar för länkskatt och meme-dödaren, som EU-parlamentet kommer rösta om i morgon klockan 12:00. Om lagarna röstas igenom kommer käppar sättas i hjulet på sidor som Wikipedia.

Hela Wikipedia-texten kan ni läsa här nere.

On 5 July 2018 the European Parliament will decide whether to speed up the approval of the copyright directive. This directive, if promulgated, will significantly limit the freedom of the Internet.

Instead of updating the copyright laws in Europe to promote everyone's participation in the information society, it threatens online freedom and creates barriers to accessing the Net by imposing new barriers, filters and restrictions. If the proposal is approved, it may be impossible to share a newspaper article on social networks or find it on a search engine. Wikipedia itself would risk to close.

The proposal has already met with the firm disapproval of over 70 computer scientists, including web creator Tim Berners-Lee, 169 academics, 145 organizations working in the fields of human rights, freedom of the press, scientific research and the computer industry and the Wikimedia Foundation.

For these reasons, the Italian Wikipedia community has decided to obscure all encyclopedia pages. We want to continue to offer a free, open, collaborative encyclopedia with verifiable content. We therefore ask all Members of the European Parliament to reject the current text of the directive and to reopen the debate by examining the many proposals of the Wikimedia associations, starting with the abolition of Articles 11 and 13, as well as the extension of the freedom of panorama to the whole EU and the protection of the public domain.